Kuskokwim Campus director named

Submitted by Bernice Joseph
Phone: (907) 474-7143
05/12/05

Mary Ciuniq Pete has been named director of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Kuskokwim Campus in Bethel. Pete has served as the director of the subsistence division for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game since 1996, overseeing the research program with a statewide permanent staff of nearly 40 employees, as well as 70 part-time subsistence monitors in as many rural communities.

"Mary Pete will be a great addition to the College of Rural Alaska," said Bernice Joseph, executive dean of CRA. "Her experience in coordinating a statewide program and her knowledge of the Yukon-Kuskokwim region and its challenges make her a natural candidate. I am very pleased about her willingness and enthusiasm to serve as the director."

After earning her master’s degree in cultural anthropology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1984, Pete worked out of Bethel as a researcher in the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta region as a subsistence resource specialist for the ADF&G division of subsistence. The division is the applied social science research arm of the department, and is responsible for helping management boards implement the state’s subsistence priority law.

"Mary is already an asset to the region," said Bing Santamour of the Bethel Native Corporation. "The campus and the university will benefit from her Native view and her educational background. Mary has personal qualities needed in the quest to help people in culturally relevant ways."

Pete served as an instructor for the applied field-based rural development bachelor’s degree program at the Kuskokwim Campus for nearly three years and helped to expand and enhance the program with focused and intensive seminars. The experience instilled an appreciation for the potential that the campus has to offer the region and UAF.

Pete was born and raised in Stebbins, Alaska along the Bering Sea coast, she is familiar with the region, speaks Central Yup’ik, and looks forward to serving as Kuskokwim Campus leader. She will take up her new post on July 11, 2005.

Note to editors: a downloadable high-resolution photo is available at http://www.uaf.edu/files/news/download/releasephotos/05/0505marypete.jpg