Anchorage Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Forum Podcasts

Send us Fan Mail Travis ’s primary interest areas are star formation, climate change advocacy, and astronomy education research.  He earned his bachelor’s degree in Physics from Trinity University in 1992 and his master’s (1995) and Ph. D. (1998) in Astrophysics from the University of Colorado. His UAA Faculty website lists his many publications.  He also works with a team to make color astronomic...

Send us Fan Mail Jane Anvik came to Alaska in 1973 as a city planner for the Anchorage Borough. She served in political office as an elected member of the Anchorage Charter Commission and later a six-year member of the Anchorage Assembly, which she chaired. Jane managed the Alaska Public Forum for Governor Hammond, and then worked for the Alaska Federation of Natives, the Alaska Native Foundation...

Send us Fan Mail Asia Amini , her husband Abdul, and their one-month-old son, Mohammed, fled Afghanistan after the fall of Kabul in August 2021. In January 2022, the family moved to Anchorage, which now includes their almost 2-year-old daughter, Alina. Afghans who helped the US military in the fight against the Taliban were almost exclusively male. Asia is a rare exception as, in her family, she w...

Send us Fan Mail Hal Bernton has worked in journalism for more than four decades. He was a staff reporter for The Seattle Times from 2000 to March 2023 and previously worked in Alaska for more than a decade with the Anchorage Daily News. The Oregonian, The Twin Falls Times News, and columnist Jack Anderson have also employed him. He was part of a reporting team at the Anchorage Daily News that rec...

Send us Fan Mail Dick Reichman has been a central figure in Alaska theatre for decades as a playwright, actor, director, producer, and more. He was born in 1945 in New York's Garment District. Instead of returning to take over the family store after college, he went to Carnegie-Mellon University on a Schubert Playwrighting Fellowship, then wrote and directed for Theater Workshop Boston. To su...

Send us Fan Mail Erik was born and raised in Eugene, Oregon, and Robin is from Kansas City, Missouri. They met at The Kansas City Star, where Erik worked as a photographer, and Robin covered city hall and courts as a reporter. Moving to Anchorage in 1984, Erik began a long career as a photojournalist with the Anchorage Daily News, and Robin worked as a freelance journalist. She later earned a Mast...

Send us Fan Mail Cathy Giessel , the majority leader of the Alaska Senate Bipartisan Coalition. She was first elected to the Senate in 2011 and served as Senate President from 2019-21 before taking a short break from elective office.  She was born in the Territory of Alaska, in Fairbanks, where she was raised and graduated from Lathrop High School before moving south to Anchorage in 1974.  Cathy i...

Send us Fan Mail George Bryson is a journalist who worked for the Anchorage Daily News for 30 years as a reporter, Washington correspondent, magazine writer, and editor of We Alaskans. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing and has taught journalism and literary nonfiction courses at UAA and UAF. He's co-authored books on natural science and Alaska history and served as the longtime organ...

Send us Fan Mail Amanda Metivier is an alumnus of Alaska's foster care system. Amanda and a group of foster youth/alumni co-founded Facing Foster Care in Alaska in 2003. Through her advocacy with FFCA, She has led efforts to expand services and support for foster youth across Alaska. Amanda is the Director of the Child Welfare Academy, overseeing the training of child welfare staff and the Of...

Send us Fan Mail Each year the month of April is set aside as National Poetry Month, a time to celebrate poets and their craft. AUUF has a long tradition of reserving one Sunday in April (Poetry Sunday) to celebrate National Poetry Month. This year, poets that joined us were Mike Burwell, Tom Choate, Gretchen Diemer, Erin Hollowell, John McKay, John Morgan, Don Rearden,  Mistee St. Clair, Ken Wald...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Roman Dial, a professor of mathematics and biology , will soon retire from Alaska Pacific University after teaching there for over 30 years. His research has included the ecology of tropical rainforest canopies, the organisms that live on glaciers and icefields, and, for the last two decades, the effects of climate change on boreal and Arctic ecosystems. Most recently, he has...

Send us Fan Mail   Max Romey is an artist, filmmaker, producer, educator, and environmental advocate.  Growing up dyslexic in Alaska and upstate New York, Max always struggled to share the outdoors with words, so he turned to his sketchbook and camera. Max graduated from Service High and Western Washington University. After years of freelance filmmaking abroad, he returned to Alaska to make a diff...

Send us Fan Mail Daniel Lord earned his undergraduate degree at UC Santa Cruz, during which time he also studied acting at UC Berkeley.  He holds master’s degrees in education and psychology and a Ph. D. in educational psychology from the University of Michigan.  After working as a licensed mental health professional, he pursued law and human rights studies at the University of Iowa. While there,...

Send us Fan Mail Mary Sattler Peltola is a member of the US House Representatives. She was elected in August 2022 to fill the remainder of the late Representative Don Young’s term, becoming the first Alaska Native to serve in Congress and the first woman from Alaska to serve in the U.S. House. In November 2022, she was elected to a full two-year term in Congress. She serves on the House Transporta...

Send us Fan Mail Cynthia Wentworth is Anchorage-born and raised.  She first took the Alaska Railroad to Montana Creek in 1960 to visit a friend on her homestead.   In 1966, she and her sister Dana, both in the West Anchorage High School band, took the train to Palmer for basketball games.  Cynthia spent her federal and state career as an economist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Alas...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Gretchen Bersch has dedicated her life to adult and continuing education. She created the master’s degree in Adult Education at the University of Alaska Anchorage, coordinated the Credit for Prior Learning program, co-created the UAA/Magadan student exchange program, trained teachers in rural villages, and created a series of filmed interviews with 80 of the world’s top schola...

Send us Fan Mail Robert Churchill has been involved with organizations with equal rights as a core value for over 40 years. He has assisted incarcerated Alaskans for the past decade as a volunteer with the NAACP, Alaska Branch 1000 in Anchorage, and the Alaska Nations Reentry Group, providing help to hundreds of individuals, especially Alaska Natives, with discrimination claims, medical and other...

Send us Fan Mail Bill Popp served as President & CEO of the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation for 16 years until 2023. Before joining AEDC, after a job change took him to the Kenia Peninsula, Popp and his family spent 25 years becoming engrained in that community.  He served as special assistant in the Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor's office from 2002-2007, focusing on oil & g...

Send us Fan Mail Chris Tuck served seven terms as a member of the Alaska House of Representatives from 2008 to 2023. He was twice elected Majority Leader of the House, leading a bipartisan House coalition for four years between 2017 and 2023. He previously served on the Anchorage School Board. Tuck is a product of Anchorage public schools. After graduating from Dimond High in 1984, he went on to a...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Lawrence Matsuda was born during World War II in the Internment Camp at Minidoka, Idaho, where his family was incarcerated after forced removal from the West Coast.  He grew up to attend the University of Washington, earning his Ph. D. while serving in the Army Reserves.  He devoted 27 years to education as a junior high school language arts teacher and Seattle School District...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Cal Williams is a community activist and historian. Born in Monroe, Louisiana, he graduated college, served in the United States Air Force during the early 1960s, participated in the historic March on Washington, and was affiliated with the Congress of Racial Equality. In 1965, he moved to Alaska, seeking job opportunities, racial integration, and a better life. He has served...

Send us Fan Mail Suzanne LaFrance represented South Anchorage on the Anchorage Assembly from 2017 to 2023. She served as Assembly Chair from 2021 to 2023, and was Chair of the Assembly’s Budget and Finance Committee and Co-Chair of its Health Policy Committee. She also served on the board of the Alaska Municipal League. In 2020, she narrowly lost the race for a seat in the Alaska House of Represen...

Send us Fan Mail Terrence Kelly, is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Alaska Anchorage, a member of the Alaska Ethics Center, and author of Professional Ethics: A Trust Based Approach.  He earned his Ph. D. in Philosophy at St. Louis University. He has published and presented on various professional ethics and social justice topics and teaches biomedical and professional et...

Send us Fan Mail Indra Arriaga is the Strategic and Operational Director for the Alaska Institute for Justice. She works across AIJ's different programs and on multiple grant development and operations aspects. Prior to joining AIJ, Indra served as the Language Assistance Compliance Manager for Alaska’s Division of Elections, and under her direction the program expanded to language access in...

Send us Fan Mail Tim Troll  is the Executive Director of the Bristol Bay Heritage Land Trust, a non-profit he helped start in Dillingham in 2000. In 2022 he completed a journey, many years in the making, to sail a restored 1936 Bristol Bay commercial fishing sailboat from Homer back to its historic home in Naknek. That same year, with help from partners, foundations, and many donors, the Land Trus...