hen the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act established corporations to facilitate land transfers, one of the objections to the federal law was that Western corporate structures were alien to the Indigenous way of life. Fifty years of struggle and success have demonstrated that Alaska Native corporations can thrive under self-determination. A critical part of their history and path forward is finding and developing leaders within their ranks.

Joining in that mission of nurturing business acumen, UAA offers its Alaska Native Business Management program.

oice of the Arctic Iñupiat formed in 2015 as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization. Working with twenty-four Alaska Native regional and village corporations, associations, and municipal governments in the North Slope Borough, the Voice is a network offering a unified voice for the area and its people.

The priorities and goals of the Voice are forward-thinking, seeking to mitigate current challenges and provide a long-term plan for the region. The most recent plan is named Vision 2050, which addresses subsistence, language and culture, healthcare, transportation, housing and infrastructure, resource development, and economic sustainability.

“Construction Roundup 2023” presents an overview of infrastructure projects that are finishing this year or are scheduled to begin. The roads, bridges, airports, and waterfront projects range in size from a couple million dollars to hundreds of millions. “Terminal Conditioning” highlights one particular airport project: a renovation by Northern Pacific Airways as the start-up prepares to launch intercontinental flights through Anchorage later this year. And “Community Transportation Infrastructure” looks at a pedestrian stairway in Cordova and the Sitka Sea Walk among other projects funded by the state’s Community Transportation Program and Transportation Alternative Program.

t’s not as easy as you might think to start a global airline,” says Rob McKinney.

Not that the CEO of Northern Pacific Airways is complaining. Progress has been swift in the nearly two years since the upstart airline was a glimmer in his eye, and not yet three years have elapsed since McKinney’s California commuter carrier bought Ravn Alaska at a bankruptcy auction.

While reviving Ravn’s routes to rural Alaska communities, McKinney has been busy acquiring a fleet of jets to connect Japan and China with the Lower 48, using Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC) as a hub. Each 757, retired after service with American Airlines, cost about $10 million, and Northern Pacific bought four by the end of 2022 with eight more on order.

he same advice for dressing in cold climates applies to structures as well: layering. Contractors apply control layers to the building envelope—the shell of a building that protects occupants from the elements—to manage the water, air, vapor, and temperature within a structure. This complex layering system within the foundation, roof, walls, windows, and doors that make up the building envelope isn’t obvious to the untrained eye. However, professional testing will quickly reveal the effectiveness of the control layers that make up the building envelope.

rom bridges, roads, and trails to storm water drainage, habitat connectivity, and scenic overlooks, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities’ (DOT&PF) Community Transportation Program (CTP) and Transportation Alternative Program (TAP) are all about getting from here to there. In September, DOT&PF opened the application period for the most recent funding cycle with up to $120 million to spend on CTP projects and up to $30 million for TAP projects.

“It’s been years since we put out a call for projects under the CTP Program,” said DOT&PF Commissioner Ryan Anderson in a press release. “These funds help our communities build transportation infrastructure that is sustainable, improves safety, addresses resiliency, and supports economic development.”

very construction company launches with a single project. How companies evolve from there depends on the market, clients, and the inclination of the owners. While diversity has its strength, for some construction companies, specialization has laid out a path for success.

Denali General Contracting, as the name implies, is not a specialist, yet the Anchorage-based company boasts a specialty: it’s prepared for projects in rural Alaska. Remote work takes a special skill set—advanced logistics, excellent attention to detail and, above all, a love for working in rural Alaska.

“You have to be prepared, you have to be organized, you have to be comfortable in that environment, and your team needs to be comfortable in that environment,” says Chris Hamre, president of Denali General.

ny given year in Alaska, a skilled industry of contractors, architects, and engineers are designing and deploying projects across the state that will expand and improve on existing infrastructure. This annual roundup of airports, harbors, bridges, and roads is a high-level capture of some of the work wrapping or launching in 2023.

lthough psychosocial risks can be found in all sectors, some workers are more likely to be exposed to them than others, because of what they do or where or how they work,” notes a World Health Organization (WHO) fact sheet titled “Risks to Mental Health at Work.”

If the “where” is north of the Arctic Circle, workplaces face unavoidable risks from geographic isolation, extreme weather, and dark winter days. “Physical and social isolation due to weather and socioeconomic burdens, as well as the lack of sunlight leading to a marked deficiency in Vitamin D, all contribute to mental/emotional health struggles,” says Joseph Delong, a physician assistant with Alaska Behavioral Health, which provides behavioral healthcare services around the state.

he Kigluaik Mountains stretch 42 miles east to west along the Seward Peninsula just north of Nome. Grizzly bears and moose roam the area, its lakes are home to a unique subspecies of Arctic char, and it’s the site of the Grand Union Glacier, the only active glacier in Western Alaska.

The mountains are also home to Graphite Creek, site of the largest known flake graphite deposit in the United States. Located 37 miles outside of Nome and 3 miles inland from Windy Cove, the deposit contains more than 8 million tonnes of graphite, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) US Mineral Deposit Database.

“Our goal is to create the first dominant [graphite] supply chain in the history of the United States,” Graphite One founder and CEO Anthony Huston said of the company’s plans in 2020.

nglers talk about “the one that got away,” but just as much of a headache for commercial fishers is the one caught accidentally. Bycatch occurs when fishermen unintentionally catch fish or other marine species that they do not want, cannot sell, or are not allowed to keep. What ends up in someone’s trap, net, or longline might be someone else’s harvest, gone to waste.

The issue of bycatch has grown more important as some fisheries get smaller and those who depend on the fish for their livelihood or survival find that there are not enough fish to go around. This raises the question of whether bycatch is at the root of the problem or if other issues facing fisheries must be addressed.

brief but powerful provision of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) has led to the dispersal of billions of dollars across the state for the betterment of Alaska Native communities, but uncertainty regarding future revenue has led some to question the long-term viability of the program.

It starts at the fundamental level of the land and what it provides.

ANCSA, the landmark legislation passed by Congress in 1971 that called for the establishment of the 12 operating Alaska Native regional corporations and more than 200 village corporations, also mandated that Alaska Native corporations (ANCs) could collectively select roughly 44 million acres of land. Those lands have been selected and mostly conveyed over decades to serve as an economic engine for the ANCs and their shareholders. Revenue generated from the use and careful development of ANC lands across Alaska—whether for tourism, mining, oil and gas, or timber operations—not only improves a corporation’s bottom line but supports an array of shareholder benefits rarely found anywhere else in the business world.

he State Committee for Research is an advisory body formed to promote “research and development as an enterprise and as an engine for economic development in Alaska.” To further that goal, it established the Alaska Innovators Hall of Fame in 2014, honoring and celebrating both individuals and inventions in Alaska that “contribute to the state’s growing culture of ingenuity.”

The original 2014/2015 cohort included more than a dozen innovators, such as Cathy Cahill, who invented an air-sensing system that alerts pilots that they are encountering volcanic ash particles; Elden Johnson, one of the engineers that found solutions for how TAPS would carry hot oil over frozen ground; Mark Gronewald, who contributed to the development of fat tire bikes; and Tim Meyers, who used innovative farming methods to improve the agricultural output of Alaska’s tundra.

oward the end of his term as governor of Alaska, someone showed Sean Parnell a word cloud compiled from his public addresses. The largest, most frequent word turned out to be “opportunity.” That theme connects his current role as UAA chancellor through his years in elected office and his career as a commercial attorney.

“Because every client is with you because they want to create something different for themselves or their business,” he says, “I saw those as creating opportunity for the client.”

Parnell might’ve never gone into law, instead pursuing his dream to become an Air Force fighter pilot, were it not for a pivotal conversation with Renita Yahara, his French teacher at Anchorage Christian School. He recalls her saying, “You were meant to be around people continually during the day. I really don’t see you in a cockpit.”