2025 Events

2025 Legacy Lecture

2025 UAF LEGACY LECTURE
Honoring Distinguished Alumni

An Evening with Tim Doran
Monday, June 2, 2025 at 7pm
BP Design Theater (401 Usibelli Engineering Building)
Lecture will be livestreamed. Reception to follow.

Tim Doran graduated from UAF with a Master of Arts in Teaching in 1984 and, in 1990, an Education Specialist Certificate. Throughout his life and career, he has worn many hats. Upon graduating from Le Moyne University, Tim became the Executive Director of Project Equity Northwest, developing relationships among churches, businesses, and minority group agencies. Next, he served as the Executive Director of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Portland, Oregon, and under those auspices, came to Alaska and spent the next two years in Kaltag. In the late ’70s, he was a program developer for the Diocese of Fairbanks. He spent the early ’80s as the administrator/superintendent for St. Mary’s Catholic High School in St. Mary’s. The Bering Strait School District was his next stop. He was a teacher in St Michael and a principal in Teller and Unalakleet. In 1990, Tim arrived in Fairbanks, where he continues to make his mark on this community. He worked at the University of Alaska Fairbanks as a graduate faculty instructor in the Educational Leadership Program. From 1992-2014, Tim was the Principal of Denali Elementary School, where in addition to being responsible for 400 students and a staff of 51, he promoted and supported initiatives that included the Denali Science Camp, the Athabascan Fiddles-in Residence, and the Denali Literacy Academy. In 1998, he was named the Alaska Distinguished Principal by the Alaska Association of Elementary School Principals. For the 2002/2003 school year, he was selected as the Elementary Principal of the Year by the Fairbanks Principals Association, and in 2011, the National Association of Elementary School Principals honored him as a National Distinguished Principal. Following retirement, Tim joined the Peace Corps, serving in Palau. He has volunteered with the University of Alaska Museum of the North as a docent for ten years, and he has been a member of the Fairbanks North Star Borough School Board since 2017, serving three consecutive terms. To quote Fairbanks journalist Dermot Cole, Doran is one of the best Fairbanks school board members of all time, an even-tempered leader with experience, knowledge, and good judgment. He is a retired principal who has spent his career doing all he can to improve education. He is one of those rare individuals who knows how to get people of different points of view to work together.

2025 Fairbanks Tall Timbers

Tall Timbers

Mondays at 7PM. These events will take place at the BP Design Theater, located in JUB 401 in the JUB building on UAF Campus, located at 1764 Tanana Loop. The Fairbanks Tall Timber Lecture Series is made possible by a generous contribution from Explore Fairbanks.

All presentations are in-person, webcasted and recorded to be posted to here within two weeks of the live event.

The Fairbanks Tall Timber Series was created to honor those who have served the Fairbanks community well. Join veteran newsman Robert Hannon either in person or via Zoom as he interviews these stalwart members of our community.

6/9
Anne Hanley
Anne Hanley began writing and producing plays in her parents’ basement at the age of seven. In third grade, she won a plastic Madonna for a poem she wrote and has been writing ever since. Anne’s first job in Fairbanks was as an anchorwoman for Scope Nightly News on KTVF-TV. When the station sent her to cover stories in Shishmaref and McGrath, she got to experience Alaska Native culture firsthand, a life-changing experience. Even before moving to Alaska, she was intrigued by the story of Louis Shotridge, a Tlingit caught between his traditional upbringing and the science of anthropology. In 1994, the University of Alaska Anchorage produced her play, Shotridge. Her fictional but true-to-life drama, The Winter Bear, about Athabascan leader Sidney Huntington, toured over 50 Alaskan communities. She just finished Coming Home, a Readers Theatre piece about the life and poetry of Mary TallMountain, a Koyukon writer adopted out of her village as a child in 1924. Anne served three terms on the Alaska Humanities Forum Board and was the first playwright to be named Alaska Writer Laureate.

6/16
Margo Klass
Before moving to Fairbanks on one of the coldest days in January 2005, Margo lived outside of Washington, DC, for 25 years, working as an arts administrator, teacher, and artist. Maker of sculptural box constructions and artist books, she quickly joined the Fairbanks creative community, first as an artist and teacher and, in 2011, as a founder of the Northwoods Book Arts Guild. Her special interest in collaboration found a home in the Guild, where she is a catalyst in organizing projects that foster communal learning and creative collaboration. Other projects, notably UAF’s In A Time Of Change (ITOC), also fed her belief in the value of creative collaboration. Her most personal collaborations, however, were with her late husband, writer Frank Soos, whose texts often accompanied her work in exhibitions. Together, they published Double Moon: Constructions and Conversations. Margo has received awards from the Rasmuson Foundation and the Alaska State Council on the Arts. She was an Artist in Residence in Denali National Park and on Beaver Creek as part of the Bureau of Land Management’s Wild and Scenic Rivers Program. In 2014, she received an Interior Alaska Mayors' Award; in 2015, she received the Governor’s Individual Artist Award.

6/23
Mary Ann Borchert
Mary Ann Borchert graduated from high school in the suburbs of Chicago. She earned her B.S. in biology from Denison University, Granvill, Ohio, and an M.S. in biology from The Ohio State University. Seeking a change from the Midwest, she moved to Eugene, Oregon, where she worked on a Ph.D. in marine biology at the University of Oregon. After four wonderful years in Oregon, she was hired to run the Electron Microscope Lab at UAF in 1971. She moved from teaching and research to administration and worked in the Graduate School until retiring from UAF in 1994. Along the way, she earned an M.S. in Engineering and Science Management from UAF. Since retirement, she has been privileged to work with others to start Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), Raven Landing Senior Community, and Aging at Home Fairbanks. Over the years, she has served on the boards of many other organizations. Mary Ann is grateful for the many ways to remain active and be of service to the Fairbanks community.

7/7
Mike Thomas
Mike Thomas feels like he is from Fairbanks, but in reality, he was born in Long Beach, California, as Louis Michael Thomas. He moved to Oregon with his parents and became a business owner at the age of 20. At the time, he was the youngest Chevron dealer in the nation. He heard Alaska’s streets were paved with gold, so he joined the black gold rush in 1976. He made it to Fairbanks by way of Anchorage in 1977 with his wife Francie and, one month later, baby boy Troy. He purchased Mike’s Chevron on College Road that same year. Sadly, it was on the wrong side of the street. So, in 1984, the building was lifted off the foundation and marched down College Road to its present location. In the meantime, Mike made friends and built his business, family, and chosen community. He became active in Fairbanks Curling Lions, where the New Year’s Eve tradition, “Sparktacular,” was started in 1989. Francie and Mike enjoy traveling, but Fairbanks is their home.

7/14
Brian O’Donoghue
Brian Patrick O’Donoghue is a well-traveled scribe. After earning undergraduate (UC Santa Cruz) and graduate degrees (NYU), he chased breaking news for east-coast weeklies in Baltimore, DC, and Manhattan before a want ad in the early 1980s lured him North to a career as a reporter for the Frontiersman in Wasilla. O’Donoghue embraced Alaska through numerous field assignments and career moves, notably covering 10 sessions of the Alaska State Legislature in Juneau for outlets ranging from the Fairbanks Daily-News-Miner and Anchorage Daily News to Alaska’s top TV stations. His books My Lead Dog was a Lesbian (Random House), and Honest Dogs (Epicenter Press) recount O’Donoghue’s struggles competing in the stormy 1991 Iditarod and 1998 Yukon Quest. In retrospect, those marathon adventures were straightforward compared to his second career, teaching journalism at UA. For nearly two decades, O’Donoghue taught students the finer arts of investigative reporting through a project examining the innocence claims of Marvin Roberts, Eugene Vent, George Frese, and Kevin Pease, four young men serving long prison sentences for the 1997 murder of a young teenager, John Hartman. O’Donoghue’s latest book, The Fairbanks Four: Murder, Injustice and the Birth of a Movement (Sourcebooks, April 2025), tells the story behind the Alaska Law Department’s shameless bid to conceal past errors. O’Donoghue and his wife of 30 years, Kate Ripley, have three adult children.

7/21
John Manthei
John Manthei’s preferred habitat is in the woods or on the water, while his preferred activity is making things, and he has been doing just that for over 70 years. There was a brief interlude during his college days and a couple of years after when he dabbled in botany, and even that couldn’t keep John out of the woods. His need to make things led him to a career in cabinet and furniture making and construction. He also became a dog musher, lived in the bush, and built dog sleds. Along the way, John enjoyed helping others make things, so teaching became another passion. John was one of the founding members of The Folk School of Fairbanks, which offers a variety of programs and classes. He loves to share his knowledge of making things from materials he has harvested from the woods and show others how to enjoy the fun.

7/28
Stan Justice
Stan Justice is a Colorado native and former mountaineer whose adventurous spirit has led him through some of the most breathtaking landscapes in Alaska. With a background in competitive running and a passion for exploration, Stan has always sought out challenges in the wilderness and on trails. Currently, he dedicates his time to enhancing recreational trails in Fairbanks, AK, by doing maintenance and trail construction and advocating for trails. His commitment to preserving the natural beauty of his home state is evident in his active involvement with local organizations that promote trail maintenance, environmental conservation, and community engagement. In 2024, he helped found Fairbanks Trails Inc., a 501c3 nonprofit. When he is not working on trails, Stan enjoys sharing dancing with the love of his life Barb Lorz.

8/4
Nicky Eiseman
Nicky Eiseman was a 20-year-old natural science student when she arrived in Fairbanks in the summer of 1974. She quickly recognized Fairbanks as home—a community full of endless opportunities, inspiring mentors, and instant access to the natural world. She enjoyed a wide variety of jobs during her first ten years, teaching Outdoor Education at UAF, planting seedlings at Anne’s Greenhouse, running the offset press at Interior Graphics and Copy, supporting 300 workers in the field as an expediter for Resource Associates, and working for Jack O’Brien at the Goldstream Store back when it was the only phone in the valley. While disparate in nature, all of these jobs provided layers of connection and gave Nicky an ever-deepening commitment to the broader Fairbanks community. Nicky joined the crew in the Berry Room at the Noel Wien Library in 1985 and began her next chapter as a storyteller, children’s entertainer, school librarian, and, eventually, classroom teacher. Along the way, she got a few degrees from UAF, raised a few kids, and donated a few organs. Raised in a tradition that valued social justice, she leaped into the fray on more than one occasion. Now retired, she gets to spend more time on Alaska’s rivers and trails, building community, stepping in to help where help is needed, and working to inspire more involvement in our local political process.

2025 Healthy Living

Tuesdays at 7PM. These events will take place at the BP Design Theater, located in JUB 401 in the JUB building on UAF Campus, located at 1764 Tanana Loop.

All lectures are in-person, webcasted and recorded to be posted here within two weeks of the live event.

6/3/2025
Normal Aging or Early Dementia?
Ron Martino, MD

6/10/2025
Meds & Life in Balance
Karen Miller, RPh, Director of Denali Pharmacy
Jane LeBlond, D, BCPS, BCCP

6/17/2025
Advances in Minimally Invasive Surgery: Faster Recovery and Better Outcomes
Abe Tsigonis, MD

6/24/2025
FHP’s Blueprint for Services
Dr. Stephen Heffington, MD, Chief Medical Director
Kari Burrell, Chief Strategy Officer

7/8/2025
Modern Approaches to Chronic Pain
Chris Gay, MD

7/15/2025
AI and Earlier Detection of Cardiovascular Disease
Romel Wrenn, MD

7/22/2025
Heart Attacks and Aging: Know the Signs, Protect Your Life
Sriharsha Gowtham, MD

7/29/2025
How to Starve Cancer
Scott Luper, ND

8/5/2025
The 30 Minute Health Transformation: Tips & Benefits for a Daily Exercise Routine
Stewart Kerr, MD, Orthopedist

8/12/2025
AI for Healthcare in Alaska: Where Are We and Where Are We Heading?
Arghya Kusum Das, PhD, Assistant Professor of Computer Science

2025 Discover Alaska

Wednesdays at 7PM. Discover Alaska is offered in cooperation with the UAF college of Indigenous Studies. These events will take place at the BP Design Theater, located in JUB 401 in the JUB building on UAF Campus, located at 1764 Tanana Loop.

All lectures are in-person, webcasted and recorded to be posted to here within two weeks of the live event.

6/4/2025
The Little Known History of Colonization, Indigenous Land Claims, and Sovereignty in Alaska
Kevin M. Illingworth, JD, Prof. of Tribal Governance

6/11/2025
Cultivating Wellness Through Traditional Healing
Teisha Simmons, MA, Interim Dean of College of Indigenous Studies

6/18/2025
The Importance of Sharing Knowledge for Alaska Native Elders’ Ability to Age Well
Jordan P. Lewis, PhD, MSW, Director of Research for College of Indigenous Studies and the Center for One Health Research

6/25/2025
Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Crisis: Culture and Self-Governance as a Protective Factor
Michelle Demmert, JD, Asst. Prof of Tribal Governance

7/9/2025
When the Muskox Comes to Town - Urban Muskoxen in Nome
Claudia Ihl, PhD, Assoc. Prof. of Biology

7/16/2025
The Land Loves You: Honoring Relational Responsibility
Tia Tidwell, MA, Asst. Prof. of Alaska Native Studies

7/23/2025
A Changing Landscape: Community Development in Alaska
Charlene Stern, PhD, Vice Chancellor for Rural, Community and Native Ed

7/30/2025
Northern Dene Astronomy
Chris Cannon, PhD, Assoc. Prof. of Indigenous Studies

8/6/2025
Indigenizing and Decolonizing Research
Jessica Black, PhD, Associate Vice Chancellor for Rural, Community and Native Education

8/13/2025
Tribal Response to the Pandemic
Alisa Alexander, MD, Director of Center for One Health Research

2025 Music in the Garden

Thursdays at the UAF Georgeson Botanical Garden
The first band begins at 6pm, the second at 7:30pm.

Music in the Garden does not cancel due to weather. In case of unhealthy conditions such as smoke, Music in the Garden will be moved to the Regents' Great Hall in the Fine Arts Complex, UAF Campus. When raining, Music in the Garden will take place under the covered Rotary pavilion in the garden. Please call Summer Sessions at 907-474-7021 to check.

Parking is limited, attendees are encouraged to use a FREE shuttle that departs from the Nenana Parking Lot, located across from the Patty Center, beginning at 5:30 p.m.