Tasha Anderson has been named Alaska Business‘s new Managing Editor. Having served the company for just under a decade in a variety of roles, Anderson was the clear choice for the job. She’s excited to lead the magazine to new heights and looks forward to keeping Alaska’s business community in the loop on the latest and greatest in the Last Frontier.

The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska is pleased to announce the hire of Dr. Tina Woods as the Senior Director of Community & Behavioral Services. In this position, Woods is responsible for the strategic development of the new Community & Behavioral Services Division which will provide leadership oversight of the Reentry & Recovery and Tribal Family & Youth Services departments. Woods is a licensed clinical psychologist and holds a PhD in clinical-community psychology with a rural Indigenous emphasis from the UA system.

United Way of Anchorage recently announced two new appointments.

Aminata Taylor was hired as its CFO. Taylor, a certified public accountant, most recently served as CFO for Camp Fire Alaska. She has worked in finance, information technology, and human resources in both nonprofit and for-profit enterprises, including CliftonLarsonAllen, where she specialized in tax compliance for nonprofits. A 2012 graduate of Coe College in Iowa, Taylor earned a master’s in accounting at the Kaplan University School of Business in Chicago in 2016.

Kayla Green joined United Way of Anchorage as Director of People and Culture. Green now helps build an organization that both responds to an ever-changing Anchorage and achieves United Way’s constant mission to improve lives. She earned a master’s in human resources at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University in 2014 and a bachelor’s in psychology at Brigham Young University–Idaho in 2011.

Penny Gage joins McKinley Alaska Private Investment as a Private Equity Associate working from the Anchorage office. She brings a diverse background in Alaska economic development; entrepreneur support and training; federal and state government; the nonprofit sector; energy policy; and international affairs. Gage most recently worked at the University of Alaska Center for Economic Development. Gage received her bachelor’s from the UAF and a master’s in foreign service from Georgetown University with a certificate in international business diplomacy.

Alaska NSF EPSCoR (Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) has named Dr. Brenda Konar as the new Principal Investigator and Project Director of its Fire & Ice research project. Konar is a professor of marine biology with the UAF College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. She has served since 2018 as a co-PI of Fire & Ice, an interdisciplinary effort to study climate-driven changes to Alaska’s boreal fire regimes and its coastal ecosystems. Konar holds a bachelor’s in biology from San Jose State University, a master’s in marine biology from Moss Landing Marine Labs in California, and a PhD in biology from UC-Santa Cruz.

BDO USA announced Chad Estes has been named Tax Office Managing Partner for the Anchorage office. In his new role, Estes oversees the local tax practice and continues working with clients in various industries including construction, government contracting, real estate, natural resources, retail, and hospitality. Estes works with many Alaska Native corporations and their subsidiaries on federal and state corporate income tax, ANCSA, ANST, and M&A issues. Estes received his bachelor’s in accounting and Master of Accountancy from the University of Wyoming.

Ampersand announced the hire of Keith Ziolkowski as its new Vice President of Strategic Initiatives. In his new position, Ziolkowski is responsible for shaping and implementing business initiatives relative to strategic IT/business alignment planning for clients as well as strategic engagement with Alaska Native corporations. Ziolkowski brings more than twenty years of experience and expertise in information technology, leadership, cybersecurity, and network infrastructure. He holds a bachelor’s from the University of Notre Dame and was awarded the Top 40 Under 40 professionals in 2009 from the Alaska Journal of Commerce.

Helge Eng joined the Department of Natural Resources as Director of the Division of Forestry and Alaska state forester after a twenty-one-year career at California’s forest management and wildlife firefighting agency. He has served in a variety of membership and leadership roles in forestry, including registered professional forester and member of the Society of American Foresters, chair of the Northern California Society of American Foresters, and state representative on the Society of American Foresters Policy Committee. Eng earned a bachelor’s in forest resources management from the University of British Columbia. At Oregon State University, he earned master’s and doctoral degrees in forest management, as well as a master’s in statistics.

Fairweather welcomed Jennifer Henderson as its new Senior Permitter. She earned a degree in Natural Resource Management from UAF and worked for the US Forest Service and State Department of Environmental Conservation before she started working in the oil and gas industry. Henderson has more than twenty years of experience as an environmental scientist in environmental permitting with federal, state, and local environmental regulations and laws.

Attorney General Treg Taylor appointed Jessie Alloway to the position of Solicitor General for Civil Appeals. In this role, Alloway serves as the state’s chief appellate lawyer for civil appeals and supervises the Opinions, Appeals, and Ethics Section of the Alaska Department of Law. Alloway joined the Alaska Department of Law in 2011 as a member of the Natural Resources section, where she represented the Alaska Departments of Natural Resources and Fish and Game in state and federal trial court on a range of issues. She received her JD from the University of Montana School of Law and is a graduate of the University of Montana School of Forestry.

Emery Schramm recently joined R&M Consultants as an Engineering Associate in the firm’s Construction Services Department. She now provides construction oversight, field inspections, and materials testing on a variety of building, bridge, transportation, site development, utility, and waterfront projects. Her experience includes inspections of seismic-resistant systems, anchor bolts, fireproofing, and laboratory testing for proctor tests, gradations, concrete strength, slump, air and unit weight, as well as soils, aggregate, asphalt, and concrete inspection, sampling, and testing services. Schramm’s various skill sets allow her flexibility in performing multiple inspection and sampling and testing activities.

KPB Architects announced the hiring of Korynn Applegate as Project Designer and Brad Nygaard as Architect.

Applegate brings sixteen years of experience as a designer. Her technical skills include an expertise in various architectural and graphic mediums for K-12 schools, preschools, and early childhood development facilities, as well as multifamily and mixed-use housing projects. Applegate has proficiency in architectural site planning, drafting, and building techniques and excels at tasks requiring strong interpersonal skills, leadership, project design, and coordination. She holds bachelor’s and master’s in architecture from Savannah College of Art and Design.

Nygaard has more than twenty-eight years of experience in the field of design. He brings a wealth of experience providing full-service architecture and managing all aspects of projects. Nygaard recently spent most of 2019 and 2020 managing a design and contractor team on large-scale earthquake repairs which included damage assessment, seismic-restraint strategies, and implementation of those strategies.