The board of Chugach Alaska Corporation appointed Katherine Carlton to Interim President, taking over for Peter Andersen, who remains as COO. Carlton most recently served as Chugach’s Vice President of ANCSA and Community Affairs. She continues to lead the recently established Chugach Regional Development and the newly formed nonprofit Chugach Tribal Services. Carlton holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Alaska and graduated from Alaska Pacific University’s Alaska Native Executive Leadership Program and Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program.
Aaron Smith joins the leadership team of Doyon, Limited as Vice President of Information Technology. Smith has more than twenty-four years of experience in technology and cybersecurity leadership, starting in the US Air Force Reserve and the Alaska Air National Guard. Smith earned an associate degree in information systems management from the Community College of the Air Force in Alabama and a bachelor’s degree in information systems from Northeastern State University in Oklahoma. He also trained with the FBI Chief Information Security Officer Academy.
Clark Hill is promoted to Director of Marine Services. Hill previously served as Bowhead Transport’s general manager. The new position expands his responsibilities to cover Alaska and Pacific-wide business development to facilitate Bowhead Transport’s growth. Hill’s maritime experience was formed on the Mississippi River, Puget Sound, and in Alaska.
To find a new General Manager, the company hired an industry veteran. Luther Bartholomew returns to the UIC family of companies from Vitus Energy. Prior to that he served as general manager of UIC Marine Services for three years. He also spent more than two decades with Crowley companies.
Huna Totem hired former Commerce Commissioner Susan Bell as Vice President of Strategic Initiatives, helping oversee projects such as Aak’w Landing in Juneau and the Alaska Native Tourism Network. The village corporation for Hoonah also named her to a new Tourism Advisory Board. Originally from Nome, Bell now lives in Juneau. She previously served as president of McKinley Research Group and as vice president of Goldbelt, Inc., and in between she served in the administration of former Governor Sean Parnell.
The Peak Trust Company appointed Anchorage attorney Julie Wrigley as Audit Committee Chair on the estate planning firm’s board of directors. She joined the board in November 2023. A graduate of Willamette University School of Law, Wrigley previously worked as an estate planning lawyer for eighteen years before transitioning to academia in 2017 at UAA. She recently received tenure as Associate Professor of Management and was appointed Interim Associate Dean at the College of Business and Public Policy.
iHeartMedia promoted Joe “Crash” Albrecht to Senior Vice President of Programming for Alaska. Overseeing six stations in Anchorage and four in Fairbanks, Albrecht succeeds Mark Murphy, who retired after more than thirty-five years in radio. Albrecht’s gravelly, excitable delivery is heard on 100.5 The Fox and News-Talk 650 KENI. He has been program director of those stations and Fox Sports affiliate KTZN-AM (550 The Zone). Albrecht started in radio at Ingstad Broadcasting in Anchorage, and he earned his nickname early in his career due to an accident with a company vehicle.
Dr. Anne Zink joins three other hosts in the rotating lineup for Line One: Your Health Connection. An emergency physician at Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, Zink was a frequent guest on the show in 2020 and 2021 when she was the State of Alaska’s chief medical officer during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since April 2024, the rotation of hosts for Outdoor Explorer has included Amy Bushatz. The publisher of the Mat-Su Sentinel news website moved from Kentucky to Palmer, sight-unseen, to pursue an outdoor-focused lifestyle after her husband left US Army active duty. After two decades in print journalism, she says “stepping into public radio was a top goal.”
Added to the host rotation for Hometown, Alaska is Kim Sherry, the first Alaskan to appear as a contestant on The Great American Recipe on PBS. A fourth-generation Alaskan who grew up in King Salmon, Sherry is an artist of pet portraits and children’s books, and she owned a clothing business in Anchorage. Jennifer Shaughnessy joined Northrim in July as AVP, Lending Compliance Manager. She has more than twenty years in banking. She holds a bachelor’s degree in zoology from State University of New York at Oswego and is a Certified Community Bank Compliance Officer and Credit Union Compliance Expert.
Neddie Manabat is now Branch Manager at Ketchikan Financial Center. Manabat started at Alaska Pacific Bank in 2012, and Northrim acquired that institution in 2014. Manabat holds a bachelor’s degree in business management from the University of the Assumption in the Philippines.
Michelle Rojas, with Northrim since 2017, becomes Assistant Branch Manager at Ketchikan Financial Center. With more than twelve years in banking, Rojas holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Fernandez College of Arts and Technology in the Philippines.
Leigh Boado joined Northrim last August as Assistant Branch Manager, Float Pool. Boado has fourteen years of experience in banking.
Constance Aguilar joined Northrim in September as a Branch Manager in Anchorage. A lifelong Alaskan, Aguilar has sixteen years in banking.
Rodney Isaloi started at Northrim in September as a Branch Manager in Anchorage. He has been in banking for twelve years, ten of those in a supervisory role. He is licensed for life insurance and investment advising.