 |
|
Milton B. Byrd, Ph.D.
Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education
Term Expires March 2014
Milton B. Byrd of Anchorage was first appointed to the Commission in 1994 and was most recently reappointed in April 2003 by Governor Frank Murkowski. Dr. Byrd is President and founder of Charter College, a private, for-profit institution founded in 1985 offering certificate programs, as well as two and four-year degree programs. A career postsecondary educator, Dr. Byrd has held faculty positions at Indiana University and Southern Illinois University; and held administrative positions at Southern Illinois University (associate dean of instruction), Northern Michigan University (vice-president for academic affairs) and Florida International University (provost). Dr. Byrd was also the president of Adams State College in Colorado and Chicago State University. An Alaska resident since 1981, he has been active on many regional and national boards and councils, including governmental and private, relating to education and public policy.
|
|
 |
Representative Alan Dick
Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education
Term is indefinite – Speaker of the House Appointment
Alan Dick was appointed to the Commission by the House Speaker in 2011. Representative Dick was elected to the House by District 6 in November 2010. He serves as Chair of the Education Committee, Vice Chair of the Health & Social Services Committee, is a member of the Community and Regional Affairs and Resources committees; and is a member of the finance subcommittees of Environmental Conservation, Fish & Game, Health & Social Services, and Educational & Early Development. He is a retired teacher and principal, and has authored several books directed at making education a significant part of rural and Bush communities. Representative Dick graduated from the University of Alaska with a B.Ed in Cross Cultural Education.
|
|
 |
Senator Hollis French
Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education
Term is indefinite – President of the Senate Appointment
Hollis French was appointed to the Commission by the Senate President in February 2009. He was elected to the State Senate in 2002 to represent the Turnagain and Spenard areas of Anchorage. He currently serves as Chair of the Judiciary Committee, is a member of the Finance Subcommittees of Corrections, Public Safety, Law, and Labor & Workforce Development; and is a member of the Community & Regional Affairs, Resources, State Affairs, and the World Trade, Tech, Innovations Committees. Prior to his political career, he worked for 13 years in the oil industry in the Cook Inlet and North Slope areas. He earned his law degree at Cornell Law School, and was state prosecutor in the Anchorage District Attorney's office for a number of years. He also has served on the board of Victims for Justice and the Boys, and as a member of the Alaska Bar Association, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Challenge Alaska, MADD, and the Underage Drinking Task Force.
|
|
 |
Sharon Charnell Gherman, Vice Chair
Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education
Term Expires March 2013
Sharon Charnell Gherman of Fairbanks was appointed to the Commission in December 2005 as a representative of Community Colleges. Ms. Gherman is the owner & president of the Alaska Funding Exchange in Fairbanks. Her past professional roles include executive director of Challenger Learning Center of Alaska, outreach administrator for K-12 educational grants at the Alaska Science and Technology Foundation in the State's Department of Community and Economic Development, consultant and owner of Fisher Consulting and Gherman Group Consulting, and grants management for the Alaska Cooperative Extension, University of Alaska, Fairbanks. She received her bachelor's degree in Rural Development in 1997, and is a graduate fellow of the WestEd National Academy for Science & Mathematics Education Leadership.
|
|
|
|
Rebecca Huggins, Chair
Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education
Term Expires March 2014
Becky L. Huggins of Meadow Lakes was appointed to the Commission in 2003 and reappointed in December 2005 by Governor Frank Murkowski. She has been a part of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough District for over fourteen years. She established one of the first charter schools in the district, assisted in establishing seeUonline (the district's first online school), and started a choice school in the Meadow Lakes area before her current position of principal of American Charter Academy. Ms. Huggins was successful in obtaining several federal and state grants on behalf of the students and staff of these schools. She has been part of multiple working groups involved in educational activities through Alaska's Department of Education and Early Development. Ms. Huggins previously served in the United States Army, attaining the rank of Major. She earned her BA in Art Education (K-12) in 1978 from Kearney State College in Kearney, Nebraska, adding an Elementary Education Endorsement in 1998, and earned a MA in Education Leadership from the University of Alaska Anchorage in 2000.
|
|
 |
Patricia Jacobson
Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education
Term Expires February 2015
Patricia Jacobson of Kodiak was named to the Commission by the Board of Regents in February 2007. Ms. Jacobson taught various elementary grades, primarily gifted classes, for twenty-five years in Kodiak. She has written and received numerous grants, including the Christa McAuliffe Fellowship for Alaska in 1992. Ms. Jacobson graduated from the University of Arizona in 1969 with a B.A. in elementary education, and from the University of Alaska in 1972 with an M.A. in elementary education.
|
|
|
|
Spike C. Jorgensen
Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education
Term Expires March 2012
Spike Jorgensen of Tok was appointed to the Commission by Governor Frank Murkowski in December 2005 as a representative of the public. Dr. Jorgensen is a senior partner in Harold Webb Associates, Ltd., a recruitment organization for school district superintendent candidates nationwide. In addition to his past service as a superintendent, principal, and teacher in South Dakota, Wyoming, and Alaska, he was an adjunct professor at the Universities of Wyoming and Alaska, and most recently retired as the longest tenured superintendent in Alaska. Dr. Jorgensen participates in numerous community and other organizations promoting public education and civic engagement, including as a member of the Tok Area Chamber of Commerce, member of the policy board for Public Education Network, and senior advisor for Columbia University Teachers College Superintendent Program. Dr. Jorgensen earned his education doctorate in public administration at the University of Wyoming in 1976.
|
|
| |
Andrew McConnell
Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education
Term Expires May 2013
Andrew McConnell of Palmer was appointed Student Representative to the Commission by Governor Parnell in April 2011. As a freshman at the University of Alaska Anchorage, he is planning to major in Business. He currently works as a graphic design assistant for UAA Student Life and Leadership Publicity Center. He is a graduate of Palmer High School. McConnell was selected by the Governor from among a slate of students who were nominated as a result of winning elections at their respective University of Alaska campuses.
|
 |
Jim Merriner
Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education
Term Expires March 2015
Jim Merriner of Anchorage was appointed to the Commission in July 2010 by the State Board of Education and Early Development as its representative. Mr. Merriner is the Anchorage site administrator for the Interior Distance Education of Alaska (IDEA) statewide correspondence school. He has worked as a consultant, and as a teacher and administrator in public, private, and home schools in Alaska. He served as Lt. Governor Sean Parnell's Chief of Staff. Mr. Merriner has commercial fished in Bristol Bay every summer since 1985. He holds a bachelor's degree in modern European history from Harvard College and a master's degree in educational leadership from Cambridge University.
|
|
 |
David Rees
Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education
Term Expires March 2013
David Rees of Eagle River was appointed to the Commission by the Alaska Workforce Investment Board in May 2008. Mr. Rees recently retired as Senior Technical Resourcing Specialist with BP of Alaska. Prior to his over 30 years in industry-related work, he taught Chemistry and Physics in the Newberg School District in Oregon. Mr. Rees serves as Chairman of the Alaska Business/Education Compact, and is committee co-chair of the education/training committee. He is on the Putting Alaska's Resources to Work (oil, gas & mining) planning and project team. Mr. Rees has been active in numerous community and civic organizations, including Alaska Job Training Council, Alaska Human Resource Investment Council, Alaska's Youth: Ready for Work Executive Board; Statewide Advisory Council for Vocational/Technical Education 1989-2001, and the Governor's Council on Vocational Education. He holds a bachelor's degree in secondary education from the University of Oregon, and a master's degree in physical science from the University of Portland in Oregon.
|
|
|
|
Jan Sieberts
Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education
Term expires March 2012
Jan K. Sieberts of Anchorage, Private Higher Education Representative, is a member of the Alaska Pacific University Board of Trustees and was appointed by Governor Palin on June 25, 2009. He has been a manager of Washington Capital Management Investment bank advisors in Alaska since 2003. Among his other national banking experience, he was manager in Alaska for Seattle-Northwest Securities Corp 2005-2006, senior vice president of National Bank of Alaska/Wells Fargo in Anchorage from 1975 to 2003, and Manager for First National Bank of Alaska 1968-1975. He currently serves as director and chairman of the finance committee of the Anchorage Community Development Authority, and previously, was a member of the Anchorage Economic Development Commission from 1987-1992, director and chairman of the Economic Recovery Task Force of the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce 1987- 1993; director of Anchorage Neighborhood Housing Services Inc. from 1990-1997 and 2003-2005, and served as director of Alaska Housing Finance Corporation from 2003 to 2005. After serving two years in the U.S. Army, Mr. Sieberts earned a bachelor's degree in finance management from the University of Oregon. He serves as the APU Board of Trustees' treasurer.
|
|
|
Kirk Wickersham
Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education
Term Expires February 2015
Kirk Wickersham of Anchorage was appointed to the Commission as a representative of the Board of Regents in December 2011. He was appointed to the Board of Regents by Governor Palin in 2007. Wickersham is an actively retired attorney and real estate broker. He is the developer and owner of FSBO System, Inc., a company that provides professional coaching to home sellers, and a former chair of the Alaska Real Estate Commission. Previously, he was an economic development consultant and won a national award for innovative community development regulations. He is a graduate of the University of Alaska, Yale Law School, and has a master's degree from the University of Colorado. Wickersham has written three published books and over two dozen professional journal articles, and lectured before more than fifty conferences, professional development seminars, and university classes. He is a member of the College of Fellows of UAA and UAF.
|
 |
Lydia Wirkus
Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education
Term Expires March 2013
Lydia Wirkus of Chugiak was appointed to the Commission by Governor Sarah Palin in March 2007 as a representative of the general public. Ms. Wirkus was a professional educator in the Matanuska Susitna Borough School District for almost fourteen years at Wasilla High School and Burchell High School, formerly Mat Su Alternative School. She created and taught several governmental courses, with an emphasis in special education/learning disabled student participation. She was successful in obtaining several federal state grants on behalf of the school district. At the time of her departure from teaching, she became very involved in various activities surrounding the Governor's campaign. Ms. Wirkus is a graduate of Florida State University, with a B.A. in Arts, International Affairs. She has a Master of Science in Special Education from Florida International University, and a Master of Education, Foods and Nutrition, from the University of North Carolina.
|
|
|