Education and Training:
- Ph.D. University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2017
Cross-Cultural Education and Futures Studies
Resilience and Adaptation Program Fellow
Thesis: Compulsory Education and Resilience in Northern Alaska: The Role of Social Learning
and Youth in Healthy Sustainable Communities
IRB certificate, 2015
- Alaska Type B Administrative Certificate, 2017
- Alaska Professional Teacher Certificate, 2013, English, Grade 5-12
- M.F.A. University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2010, Creative Writing; Thesis: Analog Pop
- M.A. (with Distinction) California State University - Northridge, 2005
Educational Leadership and Policy Studies.
Thesis:English Language Learner Mainstreaming: A Qualitative Action Research Project Examining
How Students’ Attitudes Affect Success
- California Certificate of Eligibility Administrative Services Credential, 2005
State of California Commission on Teacher Credentialing
- California Professional Clear Single Subject Teaching Credential - English, University
of California, Los Angeles and California State University-Dominguez Hills, 2002
Writing and Cross-Cultural, Language, and Academic Development emphasis
- B.A. University of Southern California, 1995
English/Creative Writing; Honors: Resident Honors/Thematic Option Program; Dean’s Scholar; Semester Abroad at Charles
University in Prague, Czech Republic
Research Interests:
- Research Assistant, National Science Foundation - The Northern Alaska Scenarios Project
(NASP): Envisioning Futures and Strategizing Pathways for Sustainable Healthy Communities,
2013-2016; $954,290. Participated in writing the grant and have been engaged as an RA during its entirety.
Responsible for facilitation and coordination of the school districts of Northwest
Arctic Borough and North Slope Borough for participation of students, teachers, and
administrators in scenarios workshops and follow-up meetings. Certificate in Foresight Seminar,January 2015, University of Houston.
- Principal Investigator, Arctic Futures Makers Project, 2015-2016; $51,250. Designed, coordinated and facilitated two-day scenarios workshop with high school
students from all ten villages of the Northwest Arctic Borough (NWAB), Alaska. Produced
and presented reports, with student-participants, to the community and councils of
Kotzebue and NWAB.
In my Ph.D. research, I research the role of education in community resilience. Specifically,
how different modes of learning and success can be facilitated in rural and largely
Indigenous communities. Many varied factors impact students’ lives during the high
school years so that success in schooling outcomes cannot be used as the sole educational
predictor in assessing a community’s resilience. I am considering resilience as a
community’s ability to rebound in the face of perturbations. In Alaska, as well as
across the Arctic, changes related to climate and resource exploitation, as well as
historical and present culture shifts and dynamics related to modernization, add to
the pressures of remote communities. For such communities learning among youth is
generally in two modes – one considered Indigenous and primarily grounded in knowledge
of Iñupiaq (in my area of study) culture, languages, land, connectedness, and subsistence
practices. The second is the Western mode of education that takes place in a public
school system. The dislocation of youth in communities has paralleled a decrease
in high school graduation rates partly because these two modes of learning remain
disconnected. This context is further problematized by a rapidly changing climate
in the North that challenges the knowledge of elders and others with traditional knowledge
concerning the land and seascapes.
In brief, my research is directed at understanding the role of rural schools in regional
resilience in Arctic Alaska and more specifically: (1) How do schools serve as a
tool of governance and what does this mean for rural, largely Indigenous communities?
(2) What would be the best method to help communities deliberate about the future
of community resilience, in particular the role educational practices play? (3) How
might communities draw on both Indigenous and Western modes of learning to plan for
the future and create capacity for successful lives of the youth as integral parts
of community resilience?
My research has included qualitative interviewing and conducting scenarios development
workshops, honing these skills and expertise through my work with the Northern Alaska
Scenarios Project and the Arctic Futures Makers project. This development and refinement
will likely continue in my role as a research contributor and scenarios development
workshop coordinator with the recently funded NSF grant ($878,592) titled Public Participation in Scientific Research: Arctic Harvest (Arctic Berry Jam) with PI Katie Spellman and Co-PIs Deb Jones, Christa Mulder, and Elena Sparrow. My
research includes working with the Inuit (Iñupiat) people in the Northwest Arctic
and North Slope Boroughs of Alaska [geographically, Arctic Alaska] on the impacts
of education and participation in futures thinking on community resilience. I think
the connections and collaborations possible amongst Arctic communities could be impactful
and lead to greater understanding and adaptation in educational systems, and therefore
sustainability in circumpolar communities.
Selected Publications and Presentations:
- 2017 Journal Article (in preparation for American Educational Research Journal) “Arctic Futures Makers: Scenarios as a Deliberative Educational Practice for Rural
High School Student Resilience.”
- 2017 Report, Contributing author. Lead authors Ben Preston and A.L. Lovecraft, Arctic
Council, Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program, Adaptation Actions in a Changing Arctic (AACA), regional (Bering/Beaufort/Chukchi) report, Chapter 8 “Scenarios.”
- 2017 Journal Article (Under Review, Sydney Environmental Institute) “Co-Producing
Anticipatory Governance: Scenarios as Social Learning in Arctic Alaska “ A.L. Lovecraft,
B. Blair, D. Cost, K. Hillmer-Pegram, R. Hum, H. Eicken, and M. Mueller-Stoffels.
- 2015 Journal Article (blind peer review) “The Role of Public Education in Governance
for Resilience in a Rapidly Changing Arctic” Ecology and Society20(3):29, http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-07757-200329
- 2012 Report to North Slope Borough School District “Feasibility of Alternative School
Programing in Utqiaġvik, Point Hope, and Point Lay.” (2017 revised as “Designing Schools
for Student Success: Alternative School Programing in Utqiagvik, Point Hope, and Point
Lay” in preparation for Journal of American Indian Education).
Professional Organization Memberships:
- Alaska Evaluation Network
- American Educational Research Association
- Association of Writers and Writing Programs
- Academy of American Poets
- Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
- National Council for the Social Studies
- National Council of Teachers of English
- National Education Association and California Teachers’ Association
- National Writing Project
- Native American and Indigenous Studies Association
