Anchorage Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Forum Podcasts

Send us Fan Mail Douglas Eby has worked as a physician executive in support of Alaska Native people for over 30 years.  He has been the VP of Medical Services for the Baldrige Award-winning Southcentral Foundation for over 25 years and helps jointly oversee the Alaska Native Medical Center.  While based in Anchorage, SCF manages and supports clinics across a huge swath of southern Alaska, and part...

Send us Fan Mail Lisa Keller grew up playing baseball and soccer, running, swimming, downhill skiing at Arctic Valley, Nordic skiing at Russian Jack, and hiking the Chugach. After graduating from Bettye Davis East Anchorage High School, she earned her BA in Political Science at the University of Oregon, where she played soccer until she discovered triathlon events. She has won the Gold Nugget, Eag...

Send us Fan Mail Diane Kaplan became president and chief executive officer of Rasmuson Foundation in 2001, after serving for six years as its first employee and administrator. Before joining the Foundation, Kaplan provided consulting services for philanthropic organizations, Native corporations and tribes, and nonprofit organizations. Prior to that, she served as chief executive officer of Alaska&...

Send us Fan Mail Kathryn Hoffer retired in April as concertmaster of the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra, a position she held for 39 years—over half of ASO’s 76-year history.  She had been a violinist with the symphony since1974. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Kathryn has made a significant impact on the music community in Anchorage and beyond. In 2010, after 25 years of shaping young mus...

Send us Fan Mail Bill Walker is a lifelong Alaskan who served as the 11th governor of our state, from 2014 to 2018. He is only the second governor born in Alaska, and during his term, he was the only Independent governor in the nation. Bill was born in Fairbanks and grew up in Delta Junction and Valdez, where he built homes with his dad and brother while still in elementary school. The Walkers los...

Send us Fan Mail Tom Sexton was born and raised in Lowell, Massachusetts, and first came to Alaska with the Army after graduating from Lowell High in 1958.  After earning his bachelor’s degree in English from what is now Salem State College, Tom returned to Alaska and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. He was hired to help establish the English Department...

Send us Fan Mail Kathleen Witkowska Tarr is the author of We Are All Poets Here, part-memoir, part-biography, involving the famous spiritual writer and thinker, Trappist monk Thomas Merton. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, she earned an MFA in Creative Nonfiction at the University of Pittsburgh and has taught creative writing. Kathleen has been named a William Shannon Fellow of the International Tho...

Send us Fan Mail Mary Jo Torgeson retired last year after serving for nine years as the Anchorage Public Library Director. She remains passionate in her belief that libraries are an essential part of a vibrant and cohesive community, both in developing strong partnerships with businesses, schools, and community agencies and in creating services that transform people’s lives. She brought a wide ran...

Send us Fan Mail Les Gara represented House District 20 in the Alaska Legislature from 2003 to 2019, serving on the Finance, Health and Social Services, and Judiciary committees, among others.  Les was born and raised in New York. When he was six, a robber broke into his father’s office while he was working late and killed him. Les lived in foster homes for twelve years until he graduated high sch...

Send us Fan Mail Lisa Keller was born in Anchorage eight years after Title IX passed. She grew up playing baseball and soccer, running, swimming, downhill skiing at Arctic Valley, Nordic skiing at Russian Jack, and hiking the Chugach. After graduating from Bettye Davis East Anchorage High School, she earned her BA in Political Science at the University of Oregon, where she played soccer until she...

Send us Fan Mail Rev. Lise Adams Sherry has served as AUUF’s Contract Minister since August 2020 and is on a path to becoming the Fellowship’s “settled” minister.  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 t...

Send us Fan Mail Rex Lamont Butler has been an attorney in Anchorage for four decades, since he graduated from Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C. Soon after graduating from high school in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Rex served as a hospital corpsman in the U.S. Navy from 1969 to 1973. After earning his B.A. in journalism from the University of North Florida, he worked for a time fo...

Send us Fan Mail Stuart Hirai grew up as a Sansei — 3rd generation Japanese American — in eastern Oregon, where Nisei mentors who had served in the famed 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team were instrumental in shaping his life. The Hirais were one of 350 families who were moved to eastern Oregon in June 1942 as laborers in the first internment camp established as a result of...

Send us Fan Mail Amy Hetzler is the National Volunteer Program manager for Compassion and Choices, a nonprofit organization working to improve patient rights and individual choice at the end of life, including access to medical aid in dying. Before taking this position in 2018, she worked with the organization in Montana to resist legislative efforts to outlaw activities relating to providing medi...

Send us Fan Mail Reverend Summer Albayati (she/her) is a UU Muslim of Iraqi descent who has been playing the Arabic drum professionally since the age of 12. Rev. Summer is currently on the staff of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA). She earned her Master’s in Divinity from Claremont School of Theology, and before coming to UUA she served most recently for over eight years as minister of...

Send us Fan Mail Lance Wilber is the new Public Works Director for the Municipality of Anchorage. He oversees the operations and reliability of the city’s infrastructure, including its streets, facilities, fleet, communications, traffic engineering, traffic signals and signage, and also capital road and drainage projects from design through construction. Until recently, he served as the Director o...

Send us Fan Mail Margo Bellamy is President of the Anchorage School Board. A career educator, she has spent over forty years in education working as a clerk typist, a teacher, librarian, assistant principal, principal, executive director, mentor, and trainer. During her two-year tenure on the Anchorage School Board, Margo has also served as Clerk, Communication Committee Chair, and Vice-President....

Send us Fan Mail This is the audio of the Celebration of Life for Macon Roberts held at AUUF and via Zoom on Saturday, 15 January 2022. A video, created by Dylan, Macon's son, that includes interviews with Macon can be found here - https://www.dropbox.com/s/iff3qurtlxfzils/video1983470574.mp4?dl=0

Send us Fan Mail Joel Cladouho s is a father, husband, and social innovator. He was born in Fairbanks and grew up in Juneau. His background is in economic development, the blue economy, and innovation and entrepreneurship. Joel earned his undergraduate degree in economics from Grinnell College and his MBA from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Joel is interested in the sustainable use of Alaska&...

Send us Fan Mail Willie Hensley was instrumental in the creation of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, which became law 50 years ago this month. He is currently the Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of Business and Public Policy at UAA. He also helped found and headed, both the Alaska Federation of Natives and the Northwest Alaskan Natives Association (NANA), an ANCSA region...

Send us Fan Mail Rev. Lise Adams Sherry has served as AUUF’s Contract Minister since August 2020 and is on a path to becoming the Fellowship’s “settled” minister. 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...

Send us Fan Mail Amanda Metivier, an alumna of Alaska's foster care system, has dedicated her career and personal life to child welfare reform. She earned a bachelor's Degree in Social Work in 2008 and a Masters in Social Work in 2012. Both from the University of Alaska Anchorage. She spent 13 years as a foster parent to teens along with her husband and recently adopted. Amanda along wit...

Send us Fan Mail Former Attorney General Bruce Botelho

Send us Fan Mail Alaskan Author Tom Kizzia

Send us Fan Mail Jennifer Brown, Development Manager, Standing Together Against Rape (STAR)