Speakers

Wilson Center Polar Institute

Betsy Baker served as the Executive Director of the North Pacific Research Board in Anchorage, Alaska from 2016-2020. Before joining NPRB, Dr. Baker was a professor of international, ocean, and environmental law at Vermont Law School and also taught at Harvard and Minnesota law schools. Her research and policy work includes projects for the Inuit Circumpolar Council-Alaska, NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service Alaska Region, Ocean Conservancy, the Arctic Council PAME working group, Statoil/DNV, and State of Alaska Arctic Policy Commission. She served as Visiting Scholar, U.S. State Department, inter-agency Extended Continental Shelf Task Force (2012-13); science crewmember on USCG icebreaker Healy, for two Arctic continental shelf mapping cruises (2008-2009); and Fellow, Institute of Arctic Studies, Dartmouth College (2010). She is a member of the Science Steering Committee of SEARCH (Study of Arctic Environmental Change) and the Polar Research Board, National Academy of Sciences. Baker earned her J.D. from Michigan, and LL.M. and doctorate in law from Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel, Germany, where she was an Alexander von Humboldt Chancellor's Fellow.

San Francisco Public Utilities Commission

David Behar is Climate Program Director at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. The SFPUC, a department of the City and County of San Francisco, delivers drinking water to 2.7 million Bay Area residents, generates hydroelectric power, and manages wastewater and stormwater facilities in San Francisco. David served as founding chair of the Water Utility Climate Alliance (WUCA) from 2007-2011. WUCA is a coalition of twelve of the largest water utilities in the U.S. delivering drinking water to over 50 million Americans that collaboratively advances water utility climate change adaptation. In 2013-14 he chaired San Francisco’s Sea Level Rise Committee, which created “Guidance for Incorporating Sea Level Rise into Capital Planning in San Francisco,” adopted as City policy in 2014 and recognized with awards from the American Society of Adaptation Professionals and the Floodplain Management Association. He has served on the Working Group on Regional Climate of the World Climate Research Program and in May 2013 former Interior Secretary Sally Jewell appointed him co-chair of the Advisory Committee on Climate Change and Natural Resource Science. He currently chairs the newly formed Bay Area Climate Adaptation Network (BayCAN).

University of Alaska Fairbanks

Lawson Brigham is a Global Fellow in the Wilson Center's Polar Institute. He is a researcher at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and a Fellow at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy's Center for Arctic Study & Policy. Captain Brigham was a career Coast Guard officer and commanded four cutters including the icebreaker Polar Sea on Arctic & Antarctic expeditions. During 2004-09 he was chair of the Arctic Council's Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment. He is a graduate of the Coast Guard Academy and earned his PhD at Cambridge University. Dr. Brigham is a member of the National Academies Polar Research Board and is a Council on Foreign Relations member. His research interests have focused on the Russian maritime Arctic, environmental change, polar marine transportation, and polar geopolitics.

USNORTHCOM

Dr. Phil Brown is the Deputy of the Joint Resources and Readiness Division within the Training and Exercise Directorate at North American Aerospace Defense Command and United States Northern Command. He leads and supervises a portfolio of Resources, Joint Training Systems, and Lessons Learned. He oversees the budget to execute exercise, training, and education programs; manages Directorate manpower and personnel activities; provides organizational guidance for the Corrective Action Program; and serves as the Directorate’s lead on Arctic issues. Dr. Brown’s experience includes 30 years in the United States Air Force as a tactical aviator in the RF-4C and A-10, leadership roles in staff and command positions in joint and international headquarters, and eight years as a defense contractor prior to joining government civil service. His major focus areas incorporate strategic policy and planning, organizational management, and training development. Dr. Brown’s current research interests, publications, and presentations focus on organizational development and change, organizational culture, training and exercise implementation, executive coaching, organizational and personal resilience, and Arctic Policy. Dr. Brown’s education includes a Doctorate of Management from Colorado Technical University; a Master of Science from the University of Southern California; and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Miami.

CNC North Consulting

Dr. Nikoosh Carlo is founder and independent consultant at CNC North Consulting that offers arctic and climate policy development and strategy related to state and federal policy, targeted public outreach, and coalition building. Most recently, Dr. Carlo served as senior advisor for climate and arctic policy to Governor Walker of Alaska and coordinated Alaska's climate policy and actions in the face of a rapidly changing physical, economic, and social landscape. Previously, she was a senior advisor at the U.S. State Department for the U.S. Chairmanship of the Arctic Council. Dr. Carlo has a special interest in advancing initiatives that support the health and wellbeing of Arctic residents and indigenous peoples. Toward this end, she led efforts to develop Arctic science policy at the U.S. National Science Foundation and the development of state-level arctic policy as the executive director of the Alaska Arctic Policy Commission. Dr. Carlo is Athabascan with deep roots in the Interior Alaska communities of Fairbanks and Tanana, where she was raised. Dr. Carlo has a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of California San Diego and a B.S. in psychology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center

Malinda Chase is a member of the Deg Hit’an Dene (Athabascan) village of Anvik, located at the confluence of the Anvik and Yukon River in Interior Alaska. She works as the Tribal Liaison at the Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center in Fairbanks, Alaska through a partnership with the Aleutain Pribilof Islands Association. In her role, she assists tribes in accessing opportunities that increase the capacity and resilience of tribes to prepare for and respond to climate impacts. She focuses on identifying data needs, research and resources for climate education, decision-making and planning. She also works with the climate science community to increase their understanding and collaborative co-production work with Alaskan tribes. Malinda is a part of the national tribal liaison network affiliated with the Bureau of Indian Affairs Tribal Resilience Program.

U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy

Raychelle Aluaq Daniel grew up in Tuntutuliak, Alaska, a Yup’ik village along the Qinaq River by the Bering Sea. She is currently with The Pew Charitable Trusts U.S. Arctic Program based in Washington D.C. She collaborates with Indigenous peoples and tribal communities on advancing policy and research priorities important for a subsistence way of life. Some of these issues include: bridging indigenous knowledge and science in decision-making, advancing the co-production of knowledge, identifying policy priorities from an indigenous perspective, and addressing the impacts from anthropogenic marine activities such as Arctic shipping. She worked briefly for the Department of the Interior on policy analysis of tribal climate resilience. She coordinated the development of a monitoring plan for marine ecosystems in the Pacific Island Network and has worked on marine mammal research projects in the Beaufort Sea and the Gulf of Alaska.

IASC

Matthew Druckenmiller is a research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he focuses on the implications of Arctic sea ice and environmental change on Alaskan coastal communities and marine mammals. His areas of interest include coastal sea ice dynamics, collaborating with Indigenous experts, and informing coastal environmental observing strategies. He coordinates the Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH) Sea Ice Action Team and serves as a research lead for the Exchange for Local Observations and Knowledge of the Arctic (ELOKA) program. Druckenmiller earned his PhD in geophysics from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. With long-held interests in science policy, he has served as a Science Policy Fellow at the National Academies’ Polar Research Board, a project manager at the Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S., and a AAAS Science Policy Fellow at the U.S. Agency for International Development. Druckenmiller is originally from Trout Run, Pennsylvania.

Ikaaġun Engagement, LLC

Kaare Ray Sikuaq Erickson is the Principal and team lead for Ikaaġun Engagement, based in Unalakleet and Anchorage, Alaska. Sikuaq was raised on the Bering Sea coast and has family scattered across northern Alaska from Unalakleet to Shishmaref to Utqiaġvik. Sikuaq was taught to provide for his communities through subsistence and leadership; to be aware of problems facing Arctic communities; and to find creative, realistic, and effective ways to alleviate or solve those issues. Sikuaq spent nearly two decades immersed in cultural studies and has most recently spent several years developing and implementing creative, effective, and efficient outreach, engagement and K-12 education programs for high profile Arctic research projects. Sikuaq's unique upbringing and specialized training allows him to successfully fulfill his role as cultural broker connecting Arctic communities and Arctic research entities.

Woodwell Climate Research Center

Jennifer Francis is a Senior Scientist at the Woods Hole Research Center in Falmouth, Massachusetts. Previously she spent 24 years as a Research Professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University, where she studied the Arctic climate system and how rapid Arctic change is affecting areas beyond the Arctic, particularly extreme weather in the northern hemisphere. She taught courses in satellite remote sensing and climate-change issues, and also co-founded and co-directed the Rutgers Climate and Environmental Change Initiative. Jennifer earned a B.S. in Meteorology from San Jose State University in 1988 and a PhD in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Washington in 1994. During the early 1980s, she and her husband sailed around the world, including the Arctic and Cape Horn, which is when her fascination with the Arctic began.

DOE

Gerald (Gary) Geernaert is Director, Climate and Environmental Sciences Division, in the US Department of Energy (DOE), in Washington DC. He oversees and directs basic scientific research at DOE National Laboratories and Universities, involving atmospheric, climate, and environmental sciences. In addition, he is the federal official responsible for two DOE scientific user facilities, i.e., the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) research facility and the Environmental Molecular Science Laboratory (EMSL). Geernaert serves as Vice-Chair of the US Global Change Research Program, and is DOE Principal to several NSTC committees, including the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee. Dr. Geernaert earned a B.S. degree in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of California, Davis; and he received a PhD degree in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Washington. In prior positions, Dr. Geernaert was Director, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL); Director, Atmospheric Environment Department, Danish National Environmental Research Institute; and Program Manager at the US Office of Naval Research. He has written and published 4 technical books and over 100 journal articles and reports throughout his career; and he is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society.

National Council for Science and the Environment

Erica Goldman is the Director of Science Policy for the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE). In this role, she leads NCSE and its member institutions in building capacity to bridge science and policy to improve the scientific basis of environmental decision-making. Erica has a varied background that includes science writing, policy, and academic research. Previously, Erica served as the Director of Policy Engagement for COMPASS, a non-profit organization that helps environmental scientists effectively share their knowledge in the public discourse and decision-making. She also served in a six-month position in the White House Council on Environmental Quality on the Land & Water Ecosystems Team. She has worked as a science writer for the Maryland Sea Grant College Program; served as a Knauss Marine Policy Fellow in the Natural Resources Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives; and worked as a news intern at Science Magazine. She received her Ph.D. in biology from the University of Washington and her B.S. from Yale University.

Students on Ice Foundation

Expedition leader, social entrepreneur, and community builder, Geoff Green is a respected and trusted leader in the national and international Polar community. For the past 23 years Geoff has dedicated his career to raising awareness and understanding of the Arctic, the Antarctic and places in between. Geoff is the founder and president of the Students on Ice Foundation, an internationally renowned program that has taken more than 3,000 youth, educators, elders, experts, scientists, leaders and artists from around the world on educational journeys to the Arctic and Antarctic. Geoff was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2012. In 2015, he was selected as one of the top 100 Greatest Canadian Explorers. The Globe & Mail called Geoff “the man who revolutionized polar and environmental education”. He was bestowed the Inuktitut name “Pitsiulak” by the Commissioner of Nunavut in 2009 for his work with Inuit youth. In 2007, Geoff was awarded the Citation of Merit for outstanding feats of exploration and service by the prestigious Explorers Club in New York City. Geoff’s experience working and traveling across the Circumpolar Arctic, the Antarctic, and across the global ocean is extensive and diverse.

Harvard University

John Holdren was President Obama’s Science and Technology Advisor and the Senate-confirmed Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from 2009 to 2017. His responsibilities included advising the President on all science and technology issues bearing on his agenda; coordinating R&D strategy and budgets across all the Executive Branch departments and agencies; overseeing interagency S&T programs, including the U.S. Global Change Research Program; representing the U.S. government in interactions with the U.S. and global science communities; and chairing the interagency Arctic Executive Steering Committee. Prior to joining the Obama administration, Holdren was Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School, Professor of Environmental Science and Policy in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, and CEO of the Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC). He rejoined Harvard in the same roles in February 2017, as well as becoming Affiliated Professor in the School of Engineering and Applied Science and Senior Advisor to the CEO at WHRC. His research and engagement with policy continue to focus on causes and consequences of—and strategies to address—global and Arctic climate change, energy strategy, nuclear arms control, and science and technology advice for elected officials.

Greenland Climate Research Centre, Greenland Institute of Natural Resources

After receiving her master’s degree from Ilisimatusarfik, Lene Kielsen Holm was secretary for the Minister for Housing and Infrastructure at the Homerule Government in Greenland. In 2003 she became special assistant within Inuit Circumpolar Council, ICC-Greenland, where she was until February 2012. Within all her time with ICC-Greenland Lene Kielsen Holm has dealt with Environmental and Sustainable Development Issues. The primary task has been to follow the work being done within the Arctic Council, an International body, with the membership of the eight Arctic States situated in the Arctic Region, working mainly on Environmental and Sustainable Development Issues. Within the work of the Arctic Council Lene K. Holm has participated in several research projects, as a member of the International Steering Committee, in the Sustainable Development Working Group projects, respectively: ‘Women’s Participation in Decision-Making Processes in Arctic Fisheries Resource Management’, 2004 and ’Women and Natural Resource Management in the Rural North’, 2006. In 2005 Lene Kielsen Holm started Sila-Inuk, an interview project that ICC, together with KNAPK, the Greenlandic Association of Fishermen and Hunters has been running. With Sila-Inuk Lene has been working on several international projects in relation to Indigenous perspectives and observations of Climate Change.

Huntington Consulting

Henry P. Huntington earned his bachelor’s degree in English at Princeton University and his master’s and doctorate in Polar Studies at the University of Cambridge. He lives in Eagle River, Alaska, where he works as an independent researcher and on Arctic Ocean conservation for Ocean Conservancy. Huntington’s research activities include reviewing the regulation of subsistence hunting in northern Alaska, documenting traditional ecological knowledge of marine mammals, examining Iñupiat Eskimo and Inuit knowledge and use of sea ice, and assessing the impacts of climate change on Arctic communities and Arctic marine mammals. Huntington has been involved in a number of international research programs, such as the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program, the Program for the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna, the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, and the Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment. He was co-chair of the National Academy of Sciences committee on emerging research questions in the Arctic and a member of the Council of Canadian Academies panel on the state of knowledge of food security in the North. Huntington has written many academic and popular articles, as well as three books. He has made long trips in the Arctic by dog team, open boat, and snowmobile.

Qikiqtani Inuit Association

Sandra Inutiq was the Chief Negotiator for the Qikiqtani Inuit Association’s Tallurutiup Imanga Inuit Impact and Benefit Agreement. Inutiq received her law degree from Akitsiraq Law School in 2005, in 2006, she became the first Inuk woman in Nunavut to pass the bar exam. In the past, she has worked as legal counsel for the Government of Nunavut, as the Director of Policy for the Office of the Languages Commissioner and served as the Official Languages Commissioner for Nunavut. Most recently, she worked for the Tides Canada Foundation as a Senior Associate for Inuit Nunangat. Inutiq has lived in various communities in Nunavut. She spent her childhood in Kangiqtualuk outpost camp and Clyde River, in her youth she moved to Iqaluit, where she now lives. After graduating high school, she attended Nunavut Sivuniksavut, an Ottawa-based college program that teaches Inuit history. After Nunavut Sivuniksavut Inutiq returned to Iqaluit and took on a paralegal training position with Justice Canada. She then worked for Corrections with the Government of Nunavut, serving youth, before returning to school for an undergraduate law program at Carleton University.

U.S. Coast Guard Arctic Policy

Shannon Jenkins serves as head of the Arctic Policy Office at U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters. His responsibilities include coordinating Arctic cross-directorate actions, harmonizing Coast Guard program office and field efforts, leading Arctic policy and strategy development, and tracking Arctic implementation-plan actions and progress. Shannon provides expert assistance on Arctic topics both internal and external to the Coast Guard and advances National interests and dialogue through public, private, and international forums. His mandate is to advance the Coast Guard’s Arctic strategy of ensuring safe, secure, and environmentally responsible maritime activity in the region. Prior to his role as Senior Arctic Policy Advisor, Shannon Jenkins served as a Program Manager within the Coast Guard’s Research, Development, Test, & Evaluation Program. He managed the Arctic and the Environmental & Waterways research areas. His duties included identifying and prioritizing research needs, coordinating project execution and resource management, and addressing internal and external leadership queries. Shannon was also a member of the matrix team that developed the Coast Guard 2010 High Latitude Mission Analysis Report. Shannon Jenkins has 30+ years of Federal service, most of those with the Coast Guard. He earned a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from Mississippi State University and a Master’s degree in National Resource Strategy from the National Defense University’s Eisenhower School.

Maj Gen Randy "Church" Kee, United States Air Force (ret) was appointed to the U.S. Arctic Research Commission by President Trump on November 10, 2020. General Kee is the Executive Director of the Arctic Domain Awareness Center (ADAC) at the University of Alaska, a DHS Science and Technology (S&T) Office of University Programs Center of Excellence in Maritime Research, a position he has held since January 4, 2016. General Kee leads a distributed team in a comprehensive effort of Science and Technology, Research and Development. In the USAF, he has commanded at the Squadron, Group and Wing levels. He served as the Vice Commander of the USAF’s Global Air Mobility Center. General Kee’s staff assignments include U.S. Transportation Command, Headquarters USAF, and the U.S. Joint Staff in both Operations and Strategic Plans and Policy Directorates. He has contributed to U.S. Arctic Strategy, supported domain awareness technology development, and contributed to Defense Support on Arctic planning initiatives. He culminated his military service as the Director of Strategy, Policy, Planning and Capabilities for U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, Germany. Church is a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center Polar Institute, a Network Member of the Canadian hosted North American and Arctic Defense and Security Network at Trent University, Peterborough Ontario, and the U.S. designated lead for a technology working group for the U.S. Navy Office of Naval Research International Cooperative Engagement Program for Polar Research. Church also leads ADAC and associated university efforts in conducting Arctic Senior Leader Summits and Symposiums for Alaska Command, a Sub-Unified Command of U.S. Northern Command headquartered at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson Alaska. Finally, he is also the co-chair of the State of Alaska Civilian Armed Services Team (ACAST) an advisory board to the Governor of Alaska on defense and security matters.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

David Kennedy is currently NOAA’s Senior Advisor for the Arctic Region. He served as Deputy Undersecretary for Administration at NOAA as well as Assistant Administrator for NOAA Ocean Service and director of NOAA’s Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management. He has more than two decades of experience leading hazardous materials management and response efforts, including coordinating federal scientific response to more than 100 oil and chemical spill incidents. Prior to 1976, Kennedy was director of the spilled oil research team at the University of Alaska Geophysical Institute. He is a native of Oskaloosa, Iowa, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology from the University of Northern Colorado.

Texas A&M University, College Station

Dr. Loisel is an early-career ecosystem scientist specializing in the structure and function of below-ground (peat and soil) natural systems. She has conducted or led a number of scientific field expeditions in Canada, Alaska, southern Patagonia, Peru, and Antarctica. Her research is empirical by nature; in the field and the lab, she studies how terrestrial ecosystems respond to environmental change over short (annual) to long (millennia) timescales, with an emphasis on linkages between carbon and climate. She also specializes in Holocene paleoenvironmental reconstructions from peat cores using a suite of proxies and models. Dr. Loisel co-leads C-PEAT, an international group on peatland-carbon research sponsored by Past Global Changes (PAGES). She is also a science steering group member of the International Soil Carbon Network (ISCN). In concert with the ISCN, her team is developing the largest and most comprehensive global soil database, which holds promise for generating transdisciplinary projects and knowledge around human health as well as soil, food, water, and energy security. She is developing a soil valuation framework and management tool that links soil attributes with ecosystem services to help deliver and disseminate clear assessments of soil health, soil benefits to society, and risks associated with land management practices.

Oregon State University - Cascades

Elizabeth Marino is an assistant professor of anthropology and sustainability at Oregon State University - Cascades. She is interested in the relationships among climate change, vulnerability, slow and rapid onset disasters, human migration, and sense of place. Her research focuses on how historically and socially constructed vulnerabilities interact with climate change and disasters – including disaster policy, biophysical outcomes of disasters and climate change, and disaster discourses. She is also interested in how people make sense and meaning out of changing environmental and social conditions; and how people interpret risk. Elizabeth is an author on the National Climate Assessment, has worked with the Humboldt Forum in Berlin on representations of climate change and disasters, and has worked with the Emmet Environmental Law and Policy Clinic at Harvard Law on issues of environmental refugees and displaced peoples. She has also worked with the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) on migration, climate change and humanitarian crisis issues. Her book "Fierce Climate, Sacred Ground: an Ethnography of Climate Change" was released in 2015.

Texas A&M University, College Station

Dr. Zenon Medina-Cetina is Associate Professor at Texas A&M University (TAMU) in the Zachry Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and holds joint appointments in the Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering, the Department of Ocean Engineering, and the Department of Geography. At TAMU he leads the Stochastic Geomechanics Laboratory (SGL) conducting research in probabilistic applications in engineering to improve current practices on risk assessment and management related to natural and anthropogenic threats, to map their associated social, economic and environmental impacts. At TAMU he leads the largest and most active international faculty driven project called the "Yucatan Initiative Project" a collaboration between Texas A&M and Yucatan’s System of Research, and Technological Development (SIIDETEY) in Mexico, developing research, academic, and service projects to generate well-being and sustainable regional economic development for both countries and regions. He is Associate Director of the Center for Geospatial Sciences, Applications and Technology (GEOSAT), and Secretary of the Technical Committee Machine Learning and Big Data (TC309) of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE). He was appointed Zachry Career Development Professorship II in the Zachry Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, in recognition of his accomplishments and future potential within the department.

Savoonga Whaling Captains Association

George Noongwook is a Yupik whaling captain from Savoonga, Alaska on Saint Lawrence Island. He served almost four decades as a Commissioner of the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission including four years (2010-2014) as Chairman. He generously shares his knowledge with the young people of St. Lawrence Island as well as with people beyond. George was a co-editor of Watching Ice and Weather Our Way, a volume that brought together Indigenous and scholarly knowledge of researching Arctic climate change. George is well known for his Yupik drumming and singing and enjoys passing songs on to young people.

Arctic Frontiers

Mr. Ole R. Øvretveit (b. 1976) is the current director of the Arctic Frontiers secretariat. Arctic Frontiers has under the management of Mr. Øvretveit grown to become one of the most influential platforms for sustainable development in the Arctic. The annual Arctic Frontiers conference attracts approximately 3000 delegates from more than 35 countries. Mr. Øvretveit graduated from the University of Bergen in 2010 with a MSc in Political Science. He has also studied in Berlin, Moscow, and Reykjavík. Before joining Arctic Frontiers, Mr. Øvretveit worked with business development commercial productions and conferences. In addition, he has been a board member in several organizations.

Wilson Center

Dr. Pincus is a assistant professor in the Strategic and Operational Research Department (SORD) in the Center for Naval Warfare Studies at the US Naval War College (NWC). At NWC, she is an associate of the Russia Maritime Studies Institute (RMSI) and the Institute for Future Warfare Studies (IFWS). Her current research interests center on security and foreign affairs in the Arctic and North Atlantic. Her work has appeared in Polar Journal, Polar Geography, War and Society, War on the Rocks, The Diplomat, and more. In 2015, Yale released Diplomacy on Ice: Energy and the Environment in the Arctic and Antarctica, co-edited with Dr. Saleem Ali. Dr Pincus previously served as primary investigator at the US Coast Guard’s Center for Arctic Study and Policy, and was a Fulbright Fellow in Iceland in 2015.

University of Alaska Fairbanks

Stacy Rasmus, PhD, is Director of the Center for Alaska Native Health Research (CANHR) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She holds a joint appointment with the Northwest Indian College, in western Washington state. Dr. Rasmus has worked with American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) communities for over two decades and has built an international program of research focusing on the promotion of indigenous strengths, wellbeing and resilience in Alaska, the Arctic and the Pacific Northwest. Dr. Rasmus is trained in the social and behavioral sciences with specific expertise in the translation of Indigenous knowledge and practice into health interventions that are community-driven and culturally-centered. She currently leads several NIH, NSF and SAMHSA grants that together engage AIAN populations in science to understand the intersections of suicide, mental health and substance use disorders with socio-ecological risk and protective factors.

Saami Council

Gunn-Britt Retter is born and raised in the coastal Saami community Unjárga-Nesseby by Varangerfjord in the north-eastern Norway. She is a teacher of training from Sámi University College (Guovdageaidnu - Kautokeino, Norway) and holds MA in Bilingual studies from University of Wales. Since 2001, Retter has worked with Arctic Environmental issues, first at Arctic Council Indigenous Peoples’ Secretariat (IPS) (Copenhagen, Denmark) and since 2005 in the present position as Head of Arctic and Environmental Unit of the Saami Council. Gunn-Britt has served as board member of the Sámi University of Applied Sciences (2011-2019) and has served as Member of Saami Parliament (Norway) for two terms (2005 – 2013). In her position as head of the Arctic and Environmental Unit in the Saami Council, Retter has been involved in issues related to indigenous peoples and traditional knowledge related to climate change, biodiversity, language, pollution and management of natural resources.

CNA Corporation

Mr. Mark Rosen is the Senior Vice President and General Counsel at The CNA Corporation. Mr. Rosen supports CNA research staff on international and national security law matters and has authored numerous international and operational law studies for various clients including the U.S. Navy, the National Reconnaissance Organization, the State Department and the National Academy of Sciences. Mr. Rosen’s particular expertise is in the maritime field including boundary and maritime disputes, marine law enforcement, and maritime confidence building measures. Mr. Rosen holds adjunct faculty appointments at the George Washington University School of Law. Prior to his employment at CNA, Mr. Rosen served as the Associate General Counsel for Science and Technology at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was the Department’s Regulatory Compliance Officer. Mr. Rosen is a retired Navy Captain (JAGC). Mr. Rosen served as the Ocean Policy Analyst and Legal Advisor to the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Plans, Policy, and Operations. Other Pentagon assignments included: Political Military Planner, Maritime and Environmental Policy, Plans and Policy Directorate (J-5), Joint Staff and Head of the International Programs Branch, Navy International law Division, Washington, DC. Mr. Rosen is a graduate of the University of Virginia School Of Law (LLM) and the University of Georgia (JD, AB).

Inuit Circumpolar Council

Dr. Dalee Sambo Dorough, Chair, Inuit Circumpolar Council, received a PhD in Law from University of British Columbia, Faculty of Law (2002) and a Master of Arts in Law & Diplomacy, The Fletcher School, Tufts University (1991). Presently, a Senior Scholar and Special Advisor on Arctic Indigenous Peoples, University of Alaska Anchorage, where she was an Assistant Professor of International Relations. Serving as an Expert Member of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, she held the position of Chairperson from 2014-2015. She was also a member and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the UN Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples. Presently, she serves as the co-Chair of the International Law Association (ILA) Committee on Implementation of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. A forthcoming publication is entitled “A Land Without Borders -- Inuit Cultural Integrity”, a chapter contribution to D. Menezes and H. Nicol (eds) The North American Arctic: New Trends in Arctic Security (UCL Press: 2019). Other publications include “The Rights, Interests and Role of the Arctic Council Permanent Participants” R. Beckman, T. Henriksen, K. Kraabel, E.J. Molenaar and J.A. Roach (eds) Governance of Arctic Shipping. Balancing Rights and Interests of Arctic States and User States (Brill: 2017).

Northern Arizona University

Dr. Ted Schuur is a Professor in the Center for Ecosystem Science and Society at Northern Arizona University. He is an ecologist who has studied links between ecosystems and climate in locations across Alaska and the Arctic. His work on this topic has included more than two decades of field research and, in this time, has resulted in more than 150 peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals such as Science, Nature, and the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences as well as numerous book chapter, reports, and published abstracts in the proceedings of scientific meetings. He participates in multiple national and international science meetings, workshops, panels, and steering committees on the topic of ecology and the environment, including most recently as a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on Oceans and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate. He is the also the lead investigator for the Permafrost Carbon Network, an international consortium of researchers aimed at synthesizing new knowledge on permafrost carbon and climate. He graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BS from the University of Michigan and he received a PhD from the University of California-Berkeley.

University of Alaska Fairbanks

Charlene “Khaih Zhuu” Stern, Ph.D. is Neets’aii Gwich’in from Arctic Village, Alaska. Dr. Stern is an enrolled member of the Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government. She is employed as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Alaska Native Studies and Rural Development at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). Dr. Stern holds a bachelor’s degree in American Cultural Studies from Western Washington University, a master’s degree in Community and Regional Planning from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D in Indigenous Studies from UAF. She currently serves as Vice-President of Tanana Chiefs Conference and is a board member for the Fairbanks Native Association and the International Porcupine Caribou Board.

University of Manitoba

Julienne C. Stroeve received a PhD in Geography from the University of Colorado Boulder, in 1996, for her work in understanding Greenland climate variability. Subsequently she became a senior research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) within the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado. In 2017 she moved to University of College London (UCL) where she headed the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM), and in 2018 she was awarded a Canada 150 Research Chair at the University of Manitoba. Her Arctic research interests include atmosphere-sea ice interactions, sea ice predictability, climate change and associated impacts. She has conducted several Arctic field campaigns, and will participate in the upcoming MOSAiC expedition. Dr. Stroeve’s work has been featured in numerous magazines, news reports, radio shows, and TV documentaries. She has given keynote addresses around the world on Arctic climate issues and briefed former Vice President Al Gore and congressional staff. Dr. Stroeve has published more than 60 articles on peer-reviewed journals, contributed to several national and international reports on climate change and has been listed as one of the most highly cited researchers by Thomson Reuters since 2014.

Center for a New American Security

James Townsend Jr. is an adjunct senior fellow in the CNAS Transatlantic Security Program. After eight years as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (DASD) for European and NATO Policy, Jim completed more than two decades of work on European and NATO policy in the Pentagon, at NATO and at the Atlantic Council. His work spanned the Cold War, post-Cold War political reconstruction in Europe and Europe's new challenges including Russia and terrorism. Before becoming DASD in 2009, Jim was a Vice President in the Atlantic Council of the United States and Director of the Council’s Program on International Security. Jim joined the Atlantic Council in 2006 after a distinguished Civil Service career at the Pentagon and at NATO. In the 1990s, Jim was the Principal Director of European and NATO Policy, the Director of NATO Policy and the Director of the Defense Plans Division at the US Mission to NATO in Brussels, Belgium. Jim's early career also included work in the Department of State, in the Office of Congressman Charles E. Bennett and in the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA). He received a direct commission in the U.S. Navy Reserve (intelligence) leaving the Reserves as a Lieutenant Commander. He has been decorated by 11 European nations and multiple times by the Department of Defense for his work, including a Presidential Rank Award (Meritorious Executive). Mr. Townsend earned a B.A. from Duke University and an M.A. from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in International Economics and American Foreign Policy.

Shismaref, AK

My name is Darlene Tocktoo Turner, born and raised in Shishmaref, Alaska. I currently work as a Migrant Educational Aide at the Shishmaref School. I have been employed with the Bering Strait School District for over thirty years. I enjoy working with students and watching them prosper in their educational growth. Through my affiliation with Arctic Futures 2050, I hope to help educate participants about the real scenario of living amongst the changes of ice and weather patterns that are impacting our way of life. I would be happy to provide first hand information and answer questions of interest to the audience. I grew up in a small town on the coast of the Bering Strait. I am a subsistence gatherer and depend on our marine mammals and land animals for survival. I am also an artist, particularly, sewing of soft-sole sealskin slippers. As a child, our seasonal patterns were very predictable and we would prepare for our hunting without any problems. As the years passed into my adulthood, these seasonal patterns changed tremendously and now we are faced with less sea ice to hunt our bearded seals. The sea ice is the foundation of our marine mammal hunts and also provides for the migration patterns of our bearded seal and walrus. Now that we're facing less ice it will impact our hunting and perhaps in the future, our livelihood. I hope to gain information to help sustain what we already have and to learn more about what to expect in the near future.

UiT The Arctic University of Norway

Paul Wassmann has for the most worked out of the Arctic University of Norway in northern Norway, Tromsø. Through more than 30 research cruises Wassmann has investigated the seasonal and marginal ice zone of the central and northern Barents Sea, Svalbard fjords, on the continental shelf north of Svalbard and the slope to the Arctic Ocean. Simultaneously Wassmann has been working with pelagic-benthic coupling in all European seas. To his breakthrough science belong studies of marginal ice zone blooms, pelagic-benthic coupling, including vertical flux regulation by zooplankton grazing and fecal pellet production/destruction. He has further developed conceptual models for system ecology comprehension of the Arctic Ocean. In particular he has contributed to the development of ecosystem models for physical-biological coupled models, including the impact of climate warming on the productivity and ecology of the future Arctic Ocean. He investigated the contiguous advective domains, ecological footprints of climate change and tipping points of future marine Arctic Ocean ecosystems. He also launched estimates of the physical constrains and productivity in the future Arctic Ocean, with the first estimates on present and future distribution of primary production of the entire Arctic Ocean.

Stantec

Dr. Francis Wiese is a Senior Principal within Stantec’s Environmental Services Group and serves as Stantec’s overall Technical Leader for Marine Science. Francis brings 25 years of experience working in the coastal and marine environment throughout the world, designing, implementing, and managing large inter-disciplinary, multi-institutional science programs in the North Atlantic, North Pacific, Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska, and the Arctic, and conducting projects in the North Sea, Caribbean, Galapagos, Gulf of Mexico, and the east and west coast of North America. Dr. Wiese has worked for and with academia, government, non-profits and industry, is a technical reviewer for over 20 international journals and serves on a variety of national and internal science panels and working groups. He has extensively focused on environmental assessment, oil pollution, environmental impacts as a result of anthropogenic stressors, wildlife monitoring, climate change, environmental policy, adaptive management, resiliency, population and bio-energetic modeling, marine mammals, seabirds, fisheries, study design, statistical analyses, and public speaking. He most of all enjoys thinking outside the box to solve complex real-world issues with robust science.