Dr. Christian Ketels
Dr. Christian Ketels is a member of the Harvard Business School faculty at Professor Michael E. Porter’s Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness. He holds a PhD (Econ) from the London School of Economics and further degrees from the Kiel Institute for World Economics and Cologne University. He is President of TCI, a global network of professionals in the field of competitiveness, clusters, and innovation, Honorary Professor at the European Business School Oestrich-Winckel, and Senior Research Fellow at the Stockholm School of Economics.
Michael H. Shuman
Michael H. Shuman is an economist, attorney, author, and entrepreneur. He’s also an adjunct instructor at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, a Fellow at Cutting Edge Capital and at the Post-Carbon Institute, and a founding board member of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE). He has authored, coauthored, or edited nine books. His most recent book, which just published by Chelsea Green in May 2015, is The Local Economy Solution: How Innovative, Self-Financing Pollinator Enterprises Can Grow Jobs and Prosperity. One of his previous books, The Small Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition (Berrett-Koehler, 2006), received as bronze prize from the Independent Publishers Association for best business book of 2006. A prolific speaker, Shuman has given an average of more than one invited talk per week, mostly to local governments and universities, for the past 30 years. He has lectured in 47 U.S. states and eight countries. He blogs regularly at www.michaelhshuman.com
Karen J. Pittman
Karen has made a career of starting organizations and initiatives that promote youth development – including the Forum for Youth Investment, which she co-founded with Merita Irby in 1998.
A sociologist and recognized leader in youth development, Karen started her career at the Urban Institute, conducting studies on social services for children and families. She later moved to the Children’s Defense Fund, launching its adolescent pregnancy prevention initiatives and helping to create its adolescent policy agenda. In 1990 she became a vice president at the Academy for Educational Development, where she founded and directed the Center for Youth Development and Policy Research and its spin-off, the National Training Institute for Community Youth Work.
In 1995 Karen joined the Clinton administration as director of the President’s Crime Prevention Council, where she worked with 13 cabinet secretaries to create a coordinated prevention agenda. From there she moved to the executive team of the International Youth Foundation (IYF), charged with helping the organization strengthen its program content and develop an evaluation strategy. In 1998 she and Rick Little, head of the foundation, took a leave of absence to work with ret. Gen. Colin Powell to create America’s Promise. Upon her return, she and Irby launched the Forum, which later became an entity separate from IYF.
Under their leadership the Forum has made good on its tag line – moving ideas to impact – by leading the charge to create ready youth, ready communities and ready leaders. This work is anchored in the Forum’s broad Ready by 21 initiatives and implemented through its core team and three affiliates: the Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality, Community Systems Group and SparkAction.
Karen has written three books and dozens of articles on youth issues, including as a regular columnist in the youth development newspaper, Youth Today. She is also a respected public speaker and has served on numerous boards and panels, including those of the Kauffman Foundation, the Educational Testing Service, the National Commission on the Senior Year of High School, the National Center for Children in Poverty, JC Penney Afterschool Fund, National Collaboration for Youth, and the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation Board. She currently sits on the America’s Promise Board of Trustees and YouthBuild USA.
Karen has been honored with the National Commission for African American Education Augustus F. Hawkins Service Award (2002), the American Youth Policy Forum Decade of Service Award for Sustained Visionary Leadership in Advancing Youth Policy (2003), the Healthy Teen Network Sprit of Service Award (2007), The Non Profit Times’ Power & Influence Top 50 (2009), and most recently, was named one of the 25 most influential leaders in Afterschool by the National Afterschool Association.
Speakers
Governor Walker
Bill Walker was born in Fairbanks and raised in Delta Junction and Valdez. His parents, Ed and Francis Walker, were Alaskan pioneers. Ed Walker was an Alaskan Scout with Castner’s Cutthroats in the Aleutians in WWII, and his mother worked on the Alcan Highway project. As a family, the Walkers celebrated Alaska Statehood in 1959, survived the 1964 Earthquake, and worked together in the family construction and hotel businesses.
Bill also worked as a carpenter, teamster and laborer on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline construction to pay for his education. He earned his BS degree in Business Management from Lewis and Clark College and his JD from the University of Puget Sound School of Law (now Seattle University). Prior to taking office, Bill and his wife, Donna, owned a law firm that focused on municipal and oil and gas law.
Married 38 years, the Walkers have four children, and four grandchildren. Bill is an avid downhill skier and enjoys fishing, boating, snow-machining, campfires with the family at the lake, and taking the grandkids ice skating.
Representative Cathy Engstrom Muñoz
Representative Cathy Engstrom Muñoz is a life-long Juneau resident who was elected to the Alaska State House in 2008 after serving on the City and Borough of Juneau Assembly from 1995 to 2001. As a legislator, Cathy works with constituents on a wide range of topics such as long-term health care, education, mining training, energy, economic opportunities, and securing funding for roads, sidewalks, docks, harbors, and other public works projects. She represents Juneau in the legislature and sees herself as one who works for the entire Southeast region – an ethos informed by her familial ties throughout the area.
President Richard J. Peterson, Central Council Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska
Chalyee Éesh (Richard Peterson) is Tlingit from the Kaagwaantaan clan. Richard grew up in Kasaan, Alaska and is a life long Alaska Native resident of Southeast Alaska. Prior to being elected as president of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska (Central Council), Richard served as Chief Executive Officer of Prince of Wales Tribal Enterprise Consortium, LLC (POWTEC), president of the Organized Village of Kasaan (OVK), mayor/city council member for the City of Kasaan, and member of the Southeast Island School District Board of Education. He has been a Delegate to the Central Council since 2000.
During his tenure with OVK, Richard fostered growth through innovative program and economic development, developing competent and reputable grant and fiscal management procedures. OVK’s annual budget increased from $13,000 to over $4 million dollars through widespread program development and strategic pursuit of grant funding.
Dr. Daniel M. White, University of Alaska Vice President for Academic Affairs and Research.
Daniel M. White was appointed Associate Vice Chancellor for Research to head the Office of Intellectual Property and Commercialization in 2010. He has been director of the Institute of Northern Engineering since July 2006.
White joined UAF in 1995. He holds the rank of Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He earned bachelor’s degrees from Colorado College and Washington University, and a doctorate from the University of Notre Dame. He is a registered professional engineer in the State of Alaska.
White’s interest and expertise in sanitary engineering led him to conduct research on drinking water protection, development and treatment. Pursuing issues related to freshwater in the Arctic, he has spent considerable time in rural villages and remote locations. White’s work has led to a better understanding of water resources for rural communities as well as the potential impacts of climate change on freshwater resources and infrastructure.
Mia Costello, Senator, 20th District
MIA COSTELLO is a Republican member of the Alaska Senate from District K. She previously served from 2011 to 2015 in the Alaska House of Representatives, representing the 20th District.
In November 2010, Costello defeated Democratic incumbent Bob Buch to win her House seat. Costello received 3,696 votes to Buch’s 2,873.[2] Costello served on the House Finance Committee and as chair of the Natural Resources Finance Subcommittee. She ran for the Senate seat vacated by Democrat Hollis French in 2014, picking up the seat to add to the Republican Senate majority.
Prior to being elected to the State House, Costello worked as a teacher, legislative aide, and as deputy communications director for governor Frank Murkowski.
Beth G. Pendleton Regional Forester
Beth Pendleton has been the Alaska Regional Forester since March 2010. As Regional Forester, Pendleton oversees management of more than 22 million acres of National Forest System lands in Southcentral and Southeast Alaska. She works closely with the region’s diverse stakeholders and communities of interest, especially on issues related to forest restoration and strengthening rural community health.
Pendleton has worked in natural resources, coast-to-coast, for more than 25 years. Her experience in both the public and private sectors make her well qualified for her role as regional forester. Previously, she served in several key positions in the Alaska Region, including Deputy Regional Forester for Operations; Director for Recreation, Lands and Minerals and team leader for the 1997 Tongass Forest Plan Revision. She worked as Program Manager for Wildlife and Fisheries in the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. and in short-term assignments as Rocky Mountain Region Deputy Regional Forester and as Pacific Southwest Research Station Director. Pendleton served as Deputy Regional Forester for the Pacific Southwest Region for four years.
Early in her career, Pendleton worked for the National Wildlife Federation’s Institute for Wildlife Research in Washington, D.C., as managing editor of scientific and technical publications.
She holds a bachelor’s in wildlife biology from the University of Vermont, a master’s in wildlife and fisheries from South Dakota State University and a master’s in journalism from the University of Wyoming. She is also a graduate of Harvard’s Senior Executive Fellows Program and American University’s Key Leadership program.
The Tongass and Chugach are the two largest single national forests in the nation. The Tongass National Forest stretches the 500-mile length of the Alaska Panhandle. The Chugach National Forest makes the 210-mile arc around Prince William Sound. The beauty and bounty of these forests draw attention from around the nation and the world.
Mayor Mary Becker
Juneau Mayor Mary Becker was born in Florida and raised in small Eskimo villages in northern Alaska. Her mother was a teacher and her father worked for the Army Corps of Engineers.
She is a graduate of Sitka High School and the College of Idaho, where she received a degree in Elementary Education with minors in Counseling and English.
She moved to Juneau in 1966, where she taught for 30 years.. She has taught at the elementary, middle school, and high school levels.
Mayor Becker served on the Juneau School Board for nine years, four of those as president. She was a member of the Alaska Association of School Boards, including a term as state president.
She is in her sixth year on the City and Borough of Juneau Assembly. She served four years as deputy mayor before becoming mayor in November, 2015.
Mayor Becker is married to Jim Becker. They have four grown children and seven grandchildren. In her spare time, Mayor Becker enjoys reading, walking, and volunteering in her community.
Senator Dennis Egan
Juneau Senator Dennis Egan hails from the capital city he now serves. Born in 1947, he graduated from Juneau Douglas High School in 1965. His father, Bill Egan, was Alaska’s first governor. Dennis graduated in 1967 from radio operation engineering school and was a U.S. Army radio communications school honor graduate. He put those skills to work serving in the Alaska Army National Guard 910th Engineer Company from 1967-1974. Named Alaska broadcaster of the year in 1990 and inducted into the Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2001, he has over 30 years on the Alaska Broadcasters Association board. Dennis was president and general manager of Alaska-Juneau Communications, Inc. since 1986. As host of KINY-AM’s “Problem Corner,” he may be the only Alaska politician who has as many voters recognize his voice as his name.
Serving the Capital City is nothing new to Sen. Egan. He’s been mayor, an assembly member, deputy mayor and planning commissioner. He’s served on the boards of directors of the Juneau Chamber of Commerce, AK Municipal League, and Southeast Conference.
