inancial institutions are catalysts for transformation, driving economic and social development for the communities they serve, including underserved communities. These institutions recognize their unique transformative power and are committed to promoting positive change.

In Alaska, financial institutions are using their resources, expertise, and influence to support diverse nonprofit organizations and charitable causes by providing grants, loans, and scholarships or making in-kind donations of goods and services. They’re also investing in organizations’ capacity by offering training, mentorship, and technical assistance.

Effective charitable giving is one of the many tangible ways First National Bank Alaska is demonstrating connections with Alaskans. During 2024, the bank’s charitable contributions benefited statewide-focused organizations including UAA, Alaska Pacific University, United Way of Anchorage, Alaska School Activities Association, Boys & Girls Club of Southcentral Alaska, and Special Olympics Alaska.

ob openings in Alaska outnumber the workers available to fill them—a preferable problem than vice versa, but a problem nonetheless. Alaska had 26,000 job openings in June 2024, compared to 25,000 openings in May, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.

Yet more than 10,000 posted jobs are unfilled in Alaska, and the gap is growing. Alaska is poised for more than $20 billion in new infrastructure and resource development projects by 2030, and an additional 20,000 new workers may be needed to complete those projects.

Dirk Craft, executive director of the Alaska Workforce Investment Board (AWIB), observed last year: “Our current workforce is aging, a concerning number of our youth are disconnected from employment opportunities, and job vacancies have reached unprecedented levels.”

laska Native corporations are for-profit enterprises with a unique community focus.

“All shareholders are entitled to benefits of Alaska Native corporations,” says Andrea Gusty, president and CEO of The Kuskokwim Corporation (TKC). In addition to their commercial investments, regional and village corporations invest in community projects that often fill the gaps where business, nonprofits, or government can’t quite reach.

Or, as in the Bristol Bay region, facilitating the reach of a government office.

“In evaluating the needs of our shareholders and their communities, we identified that one of the barriers from getting a job is not having a driver’s license,” says Carol Wren, senior vice president of shareholder development at Bristol Bay Native Corporation (BBNC). “With the lack of DMVs in many smaller communities, this is a significant issue.”

iving birth if one lives in rural Alaska can be challenging for a variety of reasons, including the need to travel to larger cities and the scarcity of post-partum care for mothers, babies, and young children once they come home. These realities can make it hard for new parents to even know where to turn for help with common topics like breastfeeding, nutrition, and developmental milestones.

According to the Alaska Maternal and Child Death Review committee (MCDR), the rates of pregnancy-associated deaths increased 184 percent in rural areas between 2012 and 2021, compared to an increase of 66 percent in urban areas, and 44 percent of those deaths were associated with barriers to healthcare access.

rom sterilizing bottled water to sealing and hardening nail polish for a durable gel manicure, ultraviolet (UV) light is used in many facets of everyday life.

In Alaska, UV light disinfection is becoming more commonly used in healthcare settings, a trend that increased following the COVID-19 epidemic.

Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage uses UV light disinfection technology to protect particularly vulnerable patients in an operating room that serves neurosurgery, vascular surgery, and cardiothoracic patients. For Opus Memoria, an assisted living home, ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) fixtures allowed the facility to open its doors to family visits earlier than it otherwise might have, and the technology still keeps residents safe during flu season. Kodiak Area Native Association (KANA) uses UVGI fixtures to disinfect the air in shared spaces such as lobbies, offices, and exam rooms in its two healthcare facilities. It also uses a mobile unit to disinfect exam rooms following visits with patients who might have upper respiratory illnesses or flu symptoms.

esearch into Gila monster venom (believe it or not) led to a diabetes medication with a tantalizing side effect: hunger suppression. In recent years, medications like Ozempic and other glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists have surged in popularity as a trendy and accessible solution for those struggling to shed pounds.

With promises of rapid weight loss and relief from food cravings, these medications have garnered the attention of many seeking a faster route to their goals. For patients who can avoid the side effects, they work as an almost magical elixir that can deliver fast results with simplicity and ease.

But as these medications take center stage, health professionals like Dylan Webb urge caution. Webb is a certified holistic health counselor and clinic director at Ideal Health, an Anchorage company with offices in Fairbanks.

ub a little dirt in the wound and gamely strap on the ol’ battered helmet. Flash a stiff upper lip and march into work. Some employees play tough, and no illness or injury will stop them from reporting for duty.

But here’s the rub: often it’s not merely a matter of shrugging off an annoying case of the sniffles or an upset stomach. Some employees might be dealing with chronic or long-term medical issues, which can decisively flip the script on the more nonchalant approach.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 129 million people in the United States have at least one major chronic disease. Half of the top ten leading causes of death in the United States are—or are linked strongly with—preventable and chronic diseases. Over the past twenty years, their prevalence has increased—a trend that’s not expected to abate. A burgeoning segment of those in the country have multiple chronic conditions, including 42 percent with at least two and 12 percent with a minimum of five.

nchorage resident Chelsea Hunt was on a FaceTime call with a friend in Idaho in February 2022 when she noticed something was wrong.

“I was walking around the kitchen, and I went to go sit down,” Hunt recalls. “I’m sitting there and all of a sudden she’s like, ‘What’s wrong with your face?’”

Unbeknownst to Chelsea, her face had begun to droop. Not only that, but her entire left side was suddenly immobilized, and she was unable to speak.

“At that point, I remember thinking, ‘What’s going on?’” she says. “I kept taking my right hand and lifting my left wrist and it kept dropping. In my brain, I could hear myself talking, but it was coming out all mumbled. I kept thinking, ‘What is happening to me?’ I had no clue. I had no symptoms or warning signs whatsoever. It just happened.”

riving through downtown Fairbanks, it’s easy to bypass Nature’s Releaf, a local cannabis shop nestled between apartment buildings and smaller home-style retail shops. The green-sided building with its black-pitched roof sits unassumingly with a subtle green and white circular logo of a single cannabis leaf poised over two open hands.

Before the legalization of recreational cannabis in Alaska, Barbara Paschall, owner of Nature’s Releaf, purchased the historic downtown property for a different kind of business development. However, when Ballot Measure 2 passed in 2014, her vision for the property changed, and she opened a family-owned cannabis dispensary, venturing later into product cultivation. Owning a business in such a highly regulated industry means Barbara understands the social and economic impact cannabis has made in Alaska during the first decade of legal sales.

he Alaska legislature passed Senate Bill 21 in 2013, overhauling the state’s taxation scheme with the More Alaska Production Act. As with any legislation, especially related to taxes or oil, some opposed the act, and a citizen-led initiative to repeal it appeared on the ballot in 2014, putting it to a public vote: keep SB21 in place or repeal it? Alaskans opted to give it a chance, and it has remained in place for ten years.

The decade prior had seen massive swings in Alaska tax law. In 2006, the Petroleum Production Tax on net profits wiped away the previous fifty years of taxing gross value. The following year saw Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share, which kept the net profits tax while increasing progressivity as prices went higher, relying on enhanced credits for new exploration as an incentive for investment. In 2010, lawmakers repealed some restrictions on tax credits and added a new one specifically for Cook Inlet. Within a few years, though, the state was skimming 45 cents from every dollar of gross wellhead production value, significantly higher than the 30-to-40-cent range since the ‘70s. Lower profitability for energy companies, and the risk of scaled-back investment, led policymakers to recalibrate the system one more time.

lassically, a mentor is someone who has come before you and done what you want to do. They share their experience and knowledge, and they guide a mentee’s professional and personal development. Mentors can act as role models, teachers, counselors, advisors, sponsors, advocates, and allies. But being an effective mentor is not easy. As the adage states, “a mentor is a compass that guides you without telling you which way to go.”

The concept of mentorship dates to ancient times. Homer’s Odyssey provides an early fictional example when Odysseus entrusts his son to a loyal friend named Mentor when he departs for the Trojan War. Spoiler alert: in the story Mentor is actually Athena, the goddess of wisdom. Alaska Native and Indigenous cultures have other examples of mentorship which live on today in the revered roles for Elders, grandparents, godparents, and aunties and uncles. Lived wisdom from ancestors carried through stories, art, dance, music, craft, and in other forms of remembrance can be a time-honored version of mentorship.

isge beatha. It’s a Scottish Gaelic term meaning “water of life.” Today, it’s known worldwide as whiskey (spelled “whisky” outside of the United States and Ireland).

It’s a drink with a storied history. The credit for the first distilled alcohol likely belongs to the ancient Mesopotamians around 2000 BCE, who used it not as an imbibement but as a perfume. Cultures like the Greeks and the Chinese made use of distilling technology (probably for medicinal purposes), and by about 1400 CE, some well-traveled Irish monks brought the concepts home and adapted them for their own enjoyment. These days, the water of life is widespread across the world as aqua vitae, akvavit, eau de vie, and whiskey’s descendants: Scotch, bourbon, malt, rye, and good ol’ mountain dew, also known as moonshine or white lightning.

In July 2023, just over 4,000 years after humanity’s first foray into distilled spirits, entrepreneurs Long Lam and Ylli Ferati opened the doors to their long-schemed Anchorage whiskey shop, Allocated.

t happens. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) conducts an inspection of your company’s workplace and discovers that an employee is not wearing their personal protective equipment (PPE) needed for the job task the worker is performing. The Certified Safety and Health Official discussed the potential hazards that were observed at the closing conference and has made a recommendation as to what citation or citations will be issued.

Three months later, the company receives a violation in the mail from OSHA along with a cover letter noting that a citation is enclosed; a reference to OSHA’s publication Employer Rights and Responsibilities Following an OSHA Inspection; the Citation and Notification of Penalty; the phone number of the area office to request an informal conference; information on how to pay OSHA penalties; a notice to employees of an informal conference that must be posted if an informal conference is requested; and the Certification of Corrective Action Worksheet that employer uses to show abatement of the alleged hazards. It is quite overwhelming for most employers, especially if one has never dealt with an administration like OSHA.

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