Anchorage Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Forum Podcasts

Send us Fan Mail Howard Weaver, a boy from Muldoon, was probably the most important figure in Alaska journalism. He led the Anchorage Daily News to two Pulitzer prizes—the Gold Medal for Distinguished and Meritorious Public Service, both times. ADN recently went on to win this award for a third time. Only three other newspapers in the 100+ year history of the Pulitzer prizes have earned that honor...

Send us Fan Mail Michael Jeffery served as the first full-time Alaska Superior Court judge in Utqiagvik, formerly Barrow, from 1982 until his retirement in 2014.  A California native, Judge Jeffery received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University in 1966 and his law degree from Yale Law School in 1969. After spending five years in India, much of it in an ashram under the tutelage of a gu...

Send us Fan Mail Duke Russell is a lifelong Alaskan and an artist well known for his "street-level" art style that captures the essence of modern-day life in Anchorage. His work has been exhibited in the Anchorage Museum, the airport, galleries throughout the state, and trendy local spots like the Spenard Roadhouse. His iconic "Spenardian" painting characterizes one of the city...

Send us Fan Mail Tim Huffman moved to Alaska from Oregon in 1984. His many jobs have included state employment, commercial fishing, remote sport fish guiding, high school and college volleyball officiating, golf course employment, and rearing angelfish for local aquarium supply stores.  In 2018, Tim began keeping bees in backyards across Anchorage and has been the beekeeper for 49th State Brewing...

Send us Fan Mail Randy Kimpton is the president of The Last Frontier Honor Flight, a nonprofit organization that takes Veterans from Alaska to Washington, D.C., to see the monuments constructed in their honor.  Anchorage has been his home since early childhood, besides the two years he spent serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Gla...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Diane Hirshberg is the Director of the Institute of Social and Economic Research and a Professor of Education Policy at the University of Alaska Anchorage. She also serves as Vice-President Academic for the University of the Arctic. Her research includes education policy analysis, indigenous education, circumpolar education issues, and the role of education in sustainable deve...

Send us Fan Mail Fresh out of law school, Meg took a job in Anchorage, sight unseen, representing Alaskans experiencing disabilities. This job brought her to Alaska, let her travel throughout the state, and gave her valuable experience working on systemic issues.   As an elected member of the Anchorage Assembly, Meg has been instrumental in expanding the Municipality's work around behavioral...

Send us Fan Mail Doug Baily was the Attorney General of Alaska from 1989 to 1990 under Gov. Steve Cowper. Before that, he served as administrative assistant to Governor Jay Hammond and as a trustee of the Alaska Permanent Fund.  Before becoming a lawyer in 1965, Doug engaged in oil exploration in Alaska. From 1968 to 1971, he was the U.S. Attorney for the District of Alaska and was responsible for...

Send us Fan Mail Bill Oberly is retiring from the Alaska Innocence Project , where he has worked, first as the Executive Director and more recently as the Legal Director.  Bill was the first Executive Director at Alaska Innocence Project, where he handled all aspects of the innocence work done by the Project, including casework, education , and legal reform.  Before AKIP, Bill was a solo practitio...

Send us Fan Mail Lise Adams Sherry is the settled minister for the Anchorage Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.  She grew up in Oregon as part of a blended family.  Her main interests growing up were dancing and theatre--she performed a lot!  Another highlight was learning French and spending her junior year of college in France. Lise is married to Nelson , and together , they have two boys (Kenne...

Send us Fan Mail John Sharify is one of the most honored broadcast journalists in the country.  A 79-time Emmy award winner, he received the 2021 DuPont Columbia Award, the broadcast equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize, for his Death with Dignity documentary Bob's Choice. Sharify is the Atwood Chair in Journalism and Public Communications at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Sharify has been h...

Send us Fan Mail Beth Rose is co-founder and Board Chair of the Alaska Eating Disorders Alliance. She is a lifelong Alaskan with over 30 years of non-profit management, fund development, public relations, finance skills, and strategic planning. She is passionate about her work with AKEDA and its outreach to partners around the state to improve awareness of eating disorders, support for individuals...

Send us Fan Mail Andrew Halcro currently hosts a blog on politics, life, and entertainment called With All Due Respect.  He served two terms as a Republican member of the Alaska House of Representatives from 1998 to 2002 and was a candidate for governor and mayor. He is currently Chairman of the Board of Avis Rent a Car of Alaska, one of the state's oldest and most successful family-owned bus...

Send us Fan Mail Larry Persily has worked in journalism and public service in Alaska for more than 45 years, growing increasingly cynical. He currently owns the weekly newspaper in Wrangell, assists other Southeast weekly newspapers , and writes opinion columns for the Anchorage Daily News in the delusional hope that people will read them, rise , and tell their elected officials: "Tax me!&quo...

Send us Fan Mail Robert Alexander earned his Ph. D. in Music and Technology from the University of Michigan.  As a NASA Fellow, he collaborated with scientists at the Goddard Space Flight Center to transform our understanding of the sun and solar wind through auditory data analysis, leading to numerous publications in the field of space physics. By day , he is the co-founder and CEO of Auralab Tec...

Send us Fan Mail Chris Rose is the founder and Executive Director of Renewable Energy Alaska Project (REAP), a non-profit coalition of diverse energy stakeholder organizations working to increase renewable energy development and promote energy efficiency across Alaska. Before establishing REAP in 2004, Mr. Rose had a private law practice for over a decade, including work in remote Northwest Arctic...

Send us Fan Mail Kate Troll is an author, op-ed columnist, wilderness adventurer, and speaker on conservation and climate issues. She has over 22 years of experience in fisheries, coastal management, and climate and energy policy. She is the former Executive Director of United Fishermen of Alaska and Alaska Conservation Voters. She has been elected to local office twice. Her opinion pieces have be...

Send us Fan Mail Dan ONeill was born and raised in San Francisco, graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, and moved to Alaska at age twenty-five.  He worked construction, studied poetry, built log cabins, hunted, fished, trapped, and ran dogs.  As a research associate at the oral history program, University of Alaska Fairbanks, he produced radio and television documentaries for pu...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Bill Cox is a board-certified diagnostic radiologist who practiced medicine for over three decades before retiring in 2015. He attended college and med school, did his residency in Michigan, and has worked in numerous hospitals and clinics since then throughout Alaska and several Western states.  He's also presented papers and lectures at numerous conferences throughout t...

Send us Fan Mail Alex Mar is a writer based in her hometown of New York City and in upstate New York. Her first book, Witches of America, was a New York Times Notable Book and Editors Pick in nonfiction. Her second nonfiction book, Seventy Times Seven, was recently published after five years of immersive research and writing and has been praised in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, New...

Send us Fan Mail Dermot Cole has been a newspaper reporter, columnist , and author in Alaska for over 40 years. For two decades , he wrote a daily column for the Fairbanks Daily News Miner while penning several history books. More recently , he served as a political reporter and columnist at the Alaska Dispatch News. Since the paper was sold, he's continued working as a journalist through his...

Send us Fan Mail David Reamer is an academic and public scholar interested in the intersections of social justice, history, and community construction. David is the co-author, with Dr. Ian Hartmann, of the book Black Lives in Alaska: An African American History of the Far Northwest, published last year by the University of Washington Press. His other publications include journal and magazine artic...

Send us Fan Mail Jessica Downes is a Nurse Consultant working in the Section of Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion for the State of Alaska.  Jessie works in the Health Systems Collaboration unit and specifically focuses on conditions and programs designed to assist the healthcare system to identify, treat and prevent chronic diseases.  Jessie works to partner with individuals, the com...

Send us Fan Mail Scott Kendal l is an experienced litigator, appellate advocate, and strategic consultant. Among his specialties is campaign and election law, and he has represented candidates for local, statewide, and national office as well as industry coalitions, non-profits, ballot measure groups, and independent campaign expenditure organizations (known as super PACs ). Scott was counsel to U...

Send us Fan Mail Darrel Hess is the Ombudsman for the Municipality of Anchorage. He has called Anchorage home since 1965 and has lived in Fairview since 1987.  Darrels public service career started in April 2008 when he was hired by Mayor Mark Begich to work on community-based projects in the Office of Economic & Community Development. In September 2009 , Mayor Dan Sullivan appointed Darrel as...