Dr. Courtney Carothers is an Associate Professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Her research program partners with communities to study human-environment relationships, fisheries privatization processes, cultural values, equity, and well-being. Her research, teaching, and service works to advance goals of equity and decolonization in science, education, and resource management.

Dr. Jessica Black holds a doctorate in Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis. She currently holds a faculty appointment at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Department of Alaska Native Studies and Rural Development and Tribal Management. Her research focuses on the intersection of governance and well-being, especially as it pertains to management of natural resources such as salmon.

Toby has more than 15 years of public-policy experience relevant to Alaska, the Arctic, and other countries. With a diverse background in economics and the natural sciences, he develops innovative techniques for decision-making, and much of his current research focuses on human dimensions of sustainable systems, with the goal of informing policy through applied economic analysis.

Steve began teaching at UAA in 1976, and has conducted anthropological research projects throughout Alaska, with a focus on precontact, historic, and contemporary fisheries of the Tlingit and Haida people. He has also conducted substantial research on subsistence practices of Alaska Natives, fisheries policies and their impacts on Alaska Natives, and on ethnohistoric and contemporary social and cultural dimensions of Alaska Native life.

Taylor Brelsford recently retired from a career in applied anthropology focused on strengthening the “direct voice” of Alaska Native stakeholders in resource management. He served with the Federal Subsistence Management Program, building the Regional Advisory Council program. More recently, he led environmental impact reviews of large development projects affecting Alaska Native communities.

As a cultural anthropologist for ADF&G, Jim’s research focuses on contemporary patterns of subsistence fishing and hunting in Alaska communities, and on Dena’ina Athabascan culture and history. He is co-author, with linguist James Kari, of Shem Pete’s Alaska: The Territory of the Upper Cook Inlet Dena’ina (2nd edition 2016) and co-curator of the Dena’inaq’ Huch’ulyeshi exhibition at the Anchorage Museum, 2013/2014.

Eric’s research focus is eco-evolutionary dynamics of aquatic ecosystems--the bi-directional interactions occurring between ecology and evolution in nature. He combines surveys of genetic, phenotypic, and ecological variation in nature with field and laboratory experiments to examine how evolution shapes populations, communities, and ecosystems and how these changes feed back to shape the trajectory of evolution.

Peter received his BSc and MSc from the University of Washington’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences and his PhD from Memorial University of Newfoundland. In the summer of 2014 he made the final leg of a long journey back to his home state of Alaska, where he joined the faculty in the Department of Fisheries in the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. As Principal Investigator of the Salmonid Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Lab (seec-lab.com), Peter and his students strive to understand the ecological patterns and processes that give rise to adaptation in nature, the consequences of adaptation for management and conservation, with the goal of sustaining the connections between salmon, people, and place.

Bert is the ADF&G Central Region Supervisor. His research has focused on salmon ecology including lake and stream trophic, paleolimnolgy, size and age patterns, hatchery and wild interactions, and spawning population monitoring. This research serves as a template for his commercial fisheries management responsibilities. Education: B.S. University of Colorado, M.S. Utah State University.

Rachel Donkersloot holds a degree in Anthropology and brings more than a decade of research experience in rural fishing communities across the North Pacific and North Atlantic. Her research concentrates on fishing community sustainability, rural well-being, marine resource governance, and contemporary youth in the Global North. She currently lives in Palmer, Alaska, and manages her own research and consulting firm, Coastal Cultures Research.

Dr. Jessica Black holds a doctorate in Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis. She currently holds a faculty appointment at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Department of Alaska Native Studies and Rural Development and Tribal Management. Her research focuses on the intersection of governance and well-being, especially as it pertains to management of natural resources such as salmon.

Dr. Courtney Carothers is an Associate Professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Her research program partners with communities to study human-environment relationships, fisheries privatization processes, cultural values, equity, and well-being. Her research, teaching, and service works to advance goals of equity and decolonization in science, education, and resource management.

Pete has focused most of his career on studies of salmon biology and life history, helping to advance conservation and fisheries management. He served on the faculty at North Carolina State University, and was the Conservation Biologist at the Wild Salmon Center in Portland, Oregon. At the Prince William Sound Science Center, Pete leads studies of interactions between wild and hatchery Pacific salmon.

Rob is a biological oceanographer, and came to PWSSC via the University of Hamburg following a doctorate at the University of Victoria. His current research focuses on how the regional oceanography structures the biogeochemistry and plankton ecosystem of the northern Gulf of Alaska.

Kristen is an evolutionary ecologist with has worked on diverse wildlife systems, from waterfowl of western Alaska to Antarctic seabirds. At the PWSSC, Kristen is leading the stream component of the Hatchery-Wild Salmon Interactions Program and the juvenile herring energetics component of the Herring Research and Monitoring Program.

In his position with the Partnership for Ecosystem Research and Management (PERM), Michael’s research focuses on fish population dynamics and ecology, resource management, and simulation modeling. He is especially interested in how Structured Decision Making methods can lead to better management outcomes, especially when they involve stakeholder engagement.

Coowe has led the development of the watershed research program at KBNERR since the Reserve’s designation in 2001, and she became Reserve Manager in March 2018. Her projects focus on understanding ecosystem processes that support watershed productivity, and in particular, juvenile salmon habitats.

Ryan and his lab are working to understand how altering the availability of the essential building blocks of life–phosphorus, nitrogen, and carbon–may cause detrimental and even irreversible damage to the ecosystems on which we rely for water, food, and recreation.

Mark Rains is a Professor of Geology and the Director of the School of Geosciences at the University of South Florida and the Associate Editor for Wetland and Watershed Hydrology for the Journal of the American Water Resources Association. Dr. Rains’ research is focused on hydrological connectivity and the role that hydrological connectivity plays in governing ecosystem structure and function.

Charles (“Si”) Simenstad – Research Professor Emeritus in the University of Washington–is an estuarine and coastal marine ecologist who has studied the organization and function of estuarine and coastal marine ecosystems, communities, seascapes, and restoration potential throughout Puget Sound, Washington, Oregon and California coasts, and Alaska for over forty years.

Dennis Whigham is a Senior Botanist and Founding Director of the North American Orchid Conservation Center. He is an Associate Editor for Estuaries and Coasts, AoB Plants, Plant Species Biology, and Restoration Ecology. Dr. Whigham’s research is focused on plant ecology, especially orchid-fungal interactions, and wetland ecology.