Board of Advisors

Jason Gootee serves as vice president of sales and strategic market development at Moda Partners, a health insurance company headquartered in Portland, Oregon. He previously served as Moda’s director of Alaska sales and service.

Gootee earned a bachelor's degree in English from UAF in 2005 and an MBA from UA Southeast in 2013. He is a past president of the UAF Alumni Association. Gootee and his father, Robert, created the Gootee Family Hockey Scholarship in 2017, now supported by an endowment fund that will help UAF student-athletes long into the future.

Gootee oversees growth and expansion of business for Moda companies throughout Alaska, Oregon, Idaho and Texas. During his more than 17 years in the industry, Gootee has become recognized as a leader who is deeply committed to helping communities transform the way they provide and pay for health care.

A passionate outdoorsman, Gootee sets the healthy-living standard for his employees by maintaining an active lifestyle. However, much of his current running, he confesses, involves chasing his four young children around the house with the assistance of his wife, Katie.

Victoria Denning is the chief administrative officer and a senior vice president at Denali State Bank.

Denning joined Denali State in 2012 as human resources manager. She was then promoted to human resources and marketing manager in 2018. She assumed her current position in January 2023.

Denning earned a bachelor’s degree in foreign languages with a minor in political science from UAF in 2006. She was a UAF scholarship athlete for volleyball during the 2001-2002 season.

Denali State is a Fairbanks-based, community-oriented financial institution offering a broad array of retail and commercial lending and deposit services. As chief administrative officer, Denning oversees a variety of administrative functions at the bank, including human resources, marketing, community relations, training and development, bankwide culture, and other related special events and projects. 

Wendy Dominique served 17 years on the Fairbanks North Star Borough Board of Education, including two years as president. 

Dominique works as a student services professional for UAF and is executive director of Al-More Inc., a nonprofit that assists in tutoring and mentoring students in the borough.

Previously, she worked 36 years in various government positions, ranging from clerk to budget analyst. She holds an associate degree in business administration.

Dominique is an advocate for diversity, equality and inclusion, and she works tirelessly to find ways to improve and provide options for all children. She is often the voice for those who are less represented or lack the full resources available to others. 

Dominique is the proud mother of three boys who graduated from Fairbanks borough schools. Her eldest son played in the National Football League, her second eldest works for HilCorp, and her youngest son lives in Ireland. She has four grandsons.  

She is also known as the master of time organization and multitasking, as she devotes herself to her family, her grandsons and their many activities, her friends, and many community and state organizations.

Chidi Igbokwe is a reliability advisor for BP’s production organization.

Igbokwe started his career at BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. in 2006 as a petroleum engineer. Since then, he has worked in numerous technical and leadership positions across Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico. He currently works in Houston, Texas.

Igbokwe earned his bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering from the Federal University of Technology Owerri Nigeria and his master’s in the same field from UAF in 2006.

As a reliability advisor at BP, Igbokwe is responsible for developing reliability strategy, workflows, insights and tooling necessary for running efficient operation across BP’s global portfolio. He also supports the production organization’s senior leadership team. He received BP’s Helios Award in 2011.

Igbokwe is a member of the UAF College of Engineering and Mines Advisory and Development Council and chairman of the UAF Petroleum Engineering Industry Advisory Board. He also was BP’s U.S. university recruiting lead for the University of Alaska. 

Igbokwe previously served on the boards of the Society of Petroleum Engineers’ Alaska chapter and the Anchorage International Rotary Club.

Igbokwe is an avid soccer player and traveler. 

Meg Nordale serves as president of GHEMM Company, a Fairbanks-based general contractor in commercial construction.

Nordale grew up in Alaska. Appreciating all of the state’s opportunities, she returned to Fairbanks after earning a bachelor’s degree in business administration, with a focus on finance and marketing, from the University of Denver in 1982.

Nordale joined GHEMM in 1994 after a long career in insurance and risk management in Fairbanks. She became the firm’s president in 2015.

Outside of GHEMM, Meg is active in the community of Fairbanks and serves a number of civic organizations, including the University of Alaska.

Meg and her husband, Bob Schruf, enjoy being in the great outdoors, whether it be a hiking, skiing or fishing adventure or working in their yard at home.

They share those adventures with their six adult children and are now beginning to share those family adventures with their newest members of the group, the grandkids!

Ayyu grew up between Dgheyey Kaq’ (Anchorage) and Uŋalaqłiq (Unalakleet) and is a tribal citizen of the Native Village of Unalakleet, the southernmost Iñupiaq and northernmost Yup’ik community. She credits her upbringing with her grandparents Stanton & Irene Katchatag, parents Doug & Vernita Herdman, family and community for the foundation of Iñupiaq and Native values that strengthen her work every single day. She is a proud mother of four, and attributes much of her passion and inspiration for working toward the perpetual strength and wellbeing of Alaska Native communities to them.

Ayyu has been with First Alaskans Institute since 2010, currently serving as Chief Administrative Officer. Over the course of her tenure with FAI, she has helped to grow a team and body of work that advances racial equity and social justice throughout Alaska, amplifying and contributing to the collective strength of our Native community through culturally-centered advocacy in all sectors. Over time, Ayyu has grown expertise in building strategies and hosting meaningful convenings that uplift community-based solutions to advance healing, awareness, and advocacy around the issues that impact our communities.

Ayyu earned her MA in Rural Development from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and a BA in Organizational Management with Nonprofit Emphasis from Alaska Pacific University; her MA thesis, “When Uŋalaqłiq Danced: Stories of Strength, Suppression & Hope” uplifted Iñupiat perspectives on colonization, missionization and the formation of the education system in Alaska, with a focus on reclamation and revitalization of ancestral ceremonies and practices. Her personal advocacy includes serving as a board member for multiple statewide and regional organizations, including Alaska Public Media, Philanthropy Northwest, University of Alaska Fairbanks and Anchorage, and Caleb Pungowiyi Scholars Steering Committee (under Kawerak). Ayyu’s extended professional history can be found here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayyu210

Aaron Schutt has served as president and CEO of Doyon Ltd., the Alaska Native regional corporation for Interior Alaska, since 2011. 

Schutt works with Doyon’s board of directors to set the overall direction for Doyon companies and to provide leadership to the senior management team.

Schutt holds a law degree from Stanford Law School. He also holds a master’s degree in civil engineering from Stanford University and a bachelor’s degree in the same field from Washington State University. 

Before joining Doyon in 2006, Schutt was an attorney at the Anchorage offices of national law firms Sonosky, Chambers, Sachse, Miller & Munson, and Heller Ehrman, where he represented tribal and Alaska Native corporation clients in transactional and business matters.

Schutt serves on the boards of Northrim BanCorp Inc. and Akeela Inc. He also coaches youth hockey. 

Schutt is Koyukon Athabascan and an enrolled member of the Native Village of Tanana. He was born in Anchorage and raised in Tok. He is married to Marissa Flannery, and together they have two sons and a daughter.

Tracy Vanairsdale is president of Bettisworth North Architects and Planners.

Vanairsdale joined Bettisworth North in 1997 and was named president in 2023.

Her architectural expertise is evident in works such as the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center, North Pole Branch Library, Tanana Chiefs Conference Chief Andrew Isaac Health Center and Ryan Middle School.

Vanairsdale attended UAF and then finished her bachelor’s degree in architecture at the University of Idaho through the Western Undergraduate Exchange program.

She has served on boards for the Rotary Club of Fairbanks and the Alaska chapters of the Association for Learning Environments and the American Institute of Architects. She is a long-time supporter of the Golden Heart Community Foundation.

Vanairsdale uses design as a powerful tool to celebrate inclusiveness and nurture connection and a sense of belonging. This principle has been the guiding force behind her designs for Alaska’s diverse cultures.

Vanairsdale was born and raised in Fairbanks, where she lives with her husband David, a proud UAF alumnus, and two spoiled dogs named for favorite Alaska rivers, Tsaina and Copper. They spend most days with Tracy at the office.