At a Glance
My Bible. If you flip through Proverbs, there’s so much wisdom in it. [Also] leadership books. I read a lot of leadership books… I don’t care how long you’ve been a leader, if you stop trying, if you say you know everything, you should leave your job.
What movie do you recommend to everyone you know?
I love the movie Shining Through. It’s a very uplifting, great movie. And the second is Heaven Is For Real.
What’s the first thing you do when you get home after a long day at work?
I kick off my shoes and start dinner… I’m a good cook because my dad was a Chinese Filipino cook who taught me everything.
If you couldn’t live in Alaska, what’s your dream locale?
New Zealand… the Māori tribe people are like us and feel like family to me, and I love the country. It’s beautiful.
If you could domesticate a wild animal, what animal would it be?
Everybody at Southcentral Foundation would have this answer for you: it’s a grizzly bear. I would get it when it was a baby and it would be mine, and nobody would come near me because he’d be right next to me.
At a Glance
My Bible. If you flip through Proverbs, there’s so much wisdom in it. [Also] leadership books. I read a lot of leadership books… I don’t care how long you’ve been a leader, if you stop trying, if you say you know everything, you should leave your job.
What movie do you recommend to everyone you know?
I love the movie Shining Through. It’s a very uplifting, great movie. And the second is Heaven Is For Real.
What’s the first thing you do when you get home after a long day at work?
I kick off my shoes and start dinner… I’m a good cook because my dad was a Chinese Filipino cook who taught me everything.
If you couldn’t live in Alaska, what’s your dream locale?
New Zealand… the Māori tribe people are like us and feel like family to me, and I love the country. It’s beautiful.
If you could domesticate a wild animal, what animal would it be?
Everybody at Southcentral Foundation would have this answer for you: it’s a grizzly bear. I would get it when it was a baby and it would be mine, and nobody would come near me because he’d be right next to me.
Off the Cuff
atherine Gottlieb has been the president and CEO of Southcentral Foundation since 1991. Her first job was also in the healthcare industry working for a doctor in Seldovia, “And I found out the major thing about doctors: they don’t go to handwriting school,” she laughs. She joined Southcentral Foundation in 1987, and throughout her career has found and seized opportunities for growth… for herself, her peers, and the organization.
For instance, she has been a faculty member of Harvard Medical School since 2015 and continues to mentor both Harvard students who come to Alaska to learn from Southcentral Foundation as well as local students and employees in whom she sees vast potential.
Gottlieb is Sugpiaq and Filipino, “and I love working with Alaska Native people,” she says. “My heart is for seeing the self-esteem of Alaska Native people be raised up… I see people change their attitudes, I see peoples’ heads be lifted up, more proud to be who they are. And that’s a major reason why I stay—I care what happens to our children’s children. I want to see and know that in a hundred years when I’m not around, that they’re going to be healthy, strong, wise, and running the world.”
Katherine Gottlieb: I like to write, so I have books in the making. [And] I play with grandbabies all the time. They keep me young.
AB: Is there a skill you’re currently developing or have always wanted to learn?
Gottlieb: I am not developing it, but I’ve always wanted to play the piano. I have this keyboard and I’m doing chords, but I haven’t taken lessons… I’d be happy if I sat down at the piano and I was able to play one song and everybody around me was like, “Wow, you play the piano?” … I just want to play one song really good [she laughs].
AB: What’s the most daring thing you’ve ever done?
Gottlieb: I am a pilot… and it was my first landing in Seldovia. There’s a way the wind carries you and drops you [that makes landing challenging].
AB: What’s your go-to comfort food?
Gottlieb: Adobo chicken.
AB: Other than your current career, if you were a kid today, what would your dream job be?
Gottlieb: I would have a great, big, giant orphanage for little kids to twelfth graders. It would have lots of acres and be a safe haven for children.
AB: What’s your favorite way to exercise?
Gottlieb: Every time I go on vacation, it’s my best exercise. I get out, I never stay still, I’m moving all the time. I’m either walking or swimming or biking—I’m doing something.
AB: Dead or alive, who would you like to see perform live in concert?
Gottlieb: The Beatles. I could sing every single one of their songs—if you play a song I will sing right along with it.
AB: What’s your greatest extravagance?
Gottlieb: It would be piloting, because it’s expensive to do it. Flying costs fuel.
AB: Have you ever had a supernatural experience?
Gottlieb: I saw a really low-flying meteorite when I was in Philadelphia and it was very, very dark and it flew over me at a very, very sad time, and I felt like it was a whisper from God saying, “I love you.”
Gottlieb: I am a visionary, which means I see [the potential of] things in twenty years… that’s been the joy of working at Southcentral Foundation and seeing a twenty-year vision come true. But that’s also my worst attribute because I have a lot of great ideas, and sometimes it frustrates me not to be able to implement all of them, but if we did we’d burn out everyone at Southcentral Foundation and my family. Drawing back, pulling back, and not implementing a vision or an idea is really hard for me.
