Topkok named Parent of the Year

September 16, 2014

University Relations

Amy Topkok, a coordinator with the University of Alaska Fairbanks School of Education, has been named Parent of the Year by the National Indian Education Association.

Topkok will receive the award during the 45th Annual NIEA Convention and Trade Show, to be held Oct. 15-18  at the Dena'ina and William Egan Civic and Convention centers in Anchorage. Her award will be presented at the luncheon Friday, Oct. 17, 12:30–2 p.m. Tickets are required.

The Alaska Native Education Program Title VII grant program staff within the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District nominated Topkok for her volunteer service on the Parent Advisory Committee since 2005. She has provided direction and positive influence so the program can help the district's Alaska Native and American Indian children achieve academic goals. Topkok also spent two years on the district school board's Diversity Committee.

Topkok is project coordinator for the UAF School of Education's Math in a Cultural Context grant. She also is studying for a master’s degree in cross-cultural studies. She earned a bachelor's degree in drawing from UAF in 1997.

Topkok, of Iñupiaq ancestry, calls Fairbanks, Kotzebue and Shishmaref home. She volunteered for many years for the UAF Festival of Native Arts, both as a college student and later as a dance group performer. Topkok co-founded the Pavva Iñupiaq Native Dance group as a nonprofit in 1999 in Fairbanks. Topkok and her husband, Sean Asiqluq Topkok, are leaders in the group, and their three sons have grown up listening, singing, drumming and dancing Iñupiaq and Yup'ik songs.