Anchorage Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Forum Podcasts

Send us Fan Mail Jim Lottsfeldt is one of the preeminent political consultants in Alaska. After graduating from Willamette University, Jim worked as a legislative aide in the Alaska legislature. After one session , he switched gears and became a political consultant and campaign manager, and has since conducted over 75 political campaigns since that time. Former & current clients include US Se...

Send us Fan Mail Margaret Stock is a lawyer who focuses on immigration and citizenship law. She is a nationally known expert on immigration and national security laws and has testified regularly before Congressional committees on immigration, homeland security, and military matters. As a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the Military Police, U.S. Army Reserve, Margaret has extensive experience with U....

Send us Fan Mail Bert Lewis is the President of the Friends of Stewart Trail. Bert grew up in the mid-west and the Rocky Mountains , where early interest in animals and all things outdoors led to a career as a biologist. His first Alaska experience was volunteering at the University of Washington Fisheries Research Institute in Dillingham. After studying and working in Colorado, Utah, Washington,...

Send us Fan Mail Michael Livingston works as a cultural heritage specialist at Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, and serves as affiliate faculty at Alaska Pacific University and the University of Alaska Anchorage and principal investigator with the National Science Foundation.  Mike has worked as a police officer and continues to serve with the State of Alaska's Cops-on-Call program, and...

Send us Fan Mail Bathsheba Demuth is a writer and environmental historian specializing in the lands and seas of the Russian and North American Arctic. Her interest in northern places and cultures began when she was 18 and moved to the village of Old Crow in the Yukon, where she trained huskies for several years. From the archive to the dog sled, she is interested in how the histories of people, id...

Send us Fan Mail Leslie Ishii is the Artistic Director of Perseverance Theatre and an actor, director, voice practitioner, activist, and community builder.  She is Yonseifourth generation Japanese American. While a teenager, she debuted as an actor in Northwest Asian American Theaters Breaking the Silence and raised legal funds for WWII US concentration camp resister Gordon Hirabayashi and his Sup...

Send us Fan Mail This is the sound recording of the celebration of life for Jack Roderick held at the Anchorage Unitarian Universalist Fellowship on 22 October 2022. There is a video of the service I am working on (there are several Zoom glitches that I am fixing). I will post a link to the video when it is done. This links to the Celebration of Life program - https://www.dropbox.com/s/ihn535m3ik6...

Send us Fan Mail Cathy Giessel was an Alaska State Senator from 2011 to 2021 and served as President of the Senate. For the past year, she has co-chaired the bi-partisan group Defend Our Constitution. 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 is a Nurse Practitioner in Family Pr...

Send us Fan Mail Mr. Whitekeys moved to Alaska during the Gold Rush of 1898 and immediately began playing piano in sleazy bars. He has described his chosen profession as “mouthing off and making snotty comments,” and his writings have appeared in an Anchorage Daily News column, Alaska Bizarre—a comedy print version of The Whale Fat Follies, humorous contributions to The Alaska Almanac, a monthly c...

Send us Fan Mail Codie Costello came to Alaska in 2005 as Director of Development for the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts. Her arts and management career has spanned more than 25 years, including positions with San Jose Repertory Theatre and Red Ladder Theatre Company in California, The Pearl Theatre Company in NYC, Spawn Ideas, Alaska Dance Theatre, and Alaska Center for the Performing Arts...

Send us Fan Mail Andrew Kitchenman is Editor-in-Chief of the Alaska Beacon, a new independent, nonpartisan news organization affiliated with the national nonprofit States Newsroom and focused on connecting Alaskans to their state government.  Andrew has covered state government in Alaska since 2016, serving as the Capitol reporter for Alaska Public Media and KTOO before joining the Alaska Beacon....

Send us Fan Mail Tim Bradner is an economics writer who has lived and worked in Alaska since 1962, attending the University of Alaska in Fairbanks and then working as a reporter for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and the Tundra Times, an Alaska Native weekly newspaper. As a journalist , Bradner covered the Alaska Native lands claims movement in the 1960s , its settlement in 1971 , the major oil di...

Send us Fan Mail Stephanie McFadden-Evans joined Alaska Public Media in 2017 and serves as its Director of Education and Engagement. She brought with her a wealth of knowledge and expertise. Stephanie is a retired Navy cryptologist with over 30 years of experience working with the Department of Defense and other federal government and non-profit agencies. Stephanie holds a Master’s Degree in Educa...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Ray Macfarlane is AUUF’s new Director of Learning and Exploration.  Before coming to Alaska, Ray taught and conducted research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where they earned a Ph. D. in Sociology. While pursuing their Ph. D., Ray connected with UU congregations in Ogden, Chicago, and Las Vegas and found opportunities that inspired them and made a difference in peopl...

Send us Fan Mail Former Alaska Governor Sean Parnell began his role as chancellor of the University of Alaska Anchorage on June 12, 2021.  Most recently an attorney in the Anchorage office of Holland & Hart LLP,  Sean Parnell has 25 years of active law practice. He was elected to two terms in the Alaska House of Representatives from 1992 until 1996, when he was elected to the Alaska Senate (19...

Send us Fan Mail Gary was AUUF's called minister from August 2012 - December 2017. This was his memorial service at AUUF. Memorial Service Program - https://www.dropbox.com/s/npoyaidu5q8nw3s/Program.pdf?dl=0 An index of Gary's Sermons/Messages  to AUUF can be found here - https://www.dropbox.com/s/st66f6qc1julvl2/Catalog_20220816.pdf?dl=0 The recordings can be found in this Dropbox folde...

Send us Fan Mail Rosene Beachy has been the Religious Educator at AUUF since 2000. She and her husband, Doug Eby, and their family moved to Alaska in 1990 and joined AUUF when it moved to the Turnagain building. A long-time teacher, Rosene became the half-time DRE for the Fellowship in 2000 and grew the program from a Sunday morning coordination position to a full-time position , including a wide...

Send us Fan Mail Vicky Ho is the managing editor of the Anchorage Daily News. She was born and raised in the Houston, Texas, area and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2010 with a major in English and a minor in architecture. While at UT, she worked for the independent student newspaper, The Daily Texan. In 2011, she joined the Steamboat Pilot & Today staff in Steamboat Sprin...

Send us Fan Mail Alex Cleghorn is the Senior Legal and Policy Director of the Alaska Native Justice Center. Alex is of Sugpiaq descent, a tribal citizen of Tangirnaq Native Village (Woody Island), and a shareholder of Alaska Native Corporations – Natives of Kodiak, Koniag Incorporated, and CIRI. As an attorney licensed in Alaska, California, and several tribal jurisdictions, his work has focused p...

Send us Fan Mail Paul Brown has more than forty-five years of experience in management, fund-raising, marketing, and organizational development. He was a founder and producing director of Alaska Repertory Theatre, the first professional theatre in Alaska. He later transitioned from producing theatre to producing films, including documentaries about former Governor Wally Hickel and Senator Ted Stev...

Send us Fan Mail Barbara Jones has served as the Anchorage Municipal Clerk since July 2012.  As the Municipal Clerk, Jones is responsible for managing a staff of eleven regular employees. The Clerk’s Office supports the Anchorage Assembly and Assembly Boards such as the Board of Ethics, conducts fair elections, accurately manages the records created by the Assembly, and reviews and issues marijuan...

Send us Fan Mail Delia Perez Meyer was born in Texas and has lived in Austin most of her life. She comes from a large and musically accomplished family and has a background in bilingual education, cultural arts, international business, and human rights activism. Delia earned her BA in Spanish & International Business and a masters’ in Business Administration and is currently a candidate for he...

Send us Fan Mail Heidi Lieb-Williams is Chair of the Governors Council on Disabilities and Special Education. She serves as a member of the National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities Leadership Circle and was the 2020 NACDD Betty Williams Champion of Equality Award recipient. She is the 2022 Global Women's Peace Network HerStory Award recipient and the 2022 Elite Ms. Natio...

Send us Fan Mail Rich Curtner served 24 years as Federal Defender for the District of Alaska, from his appointment by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 1996 until his retirement in 2020. As the Federal Defender, Rich supervised a staff of eighteen, including six attorneys, responsible for providing indigent defense services in federal court for all of Alaska. Rich spent his first decade as a l...

Send us Fan Mail Christine Charbonneau is a longtime national leader in the fight for reproductive rights. She is the host of a soon-to-be-released podcast called the Fall of Roe exploring the human toll of changes in the landscape of access to abortion services. While serving as the CEO of Planned Parenthoods Seattle-based affiliate for nearly 40 years, she expanded it across six states to become...