RSS 1.0University of Alaska Anchorage
Mission: The University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) transforms lives through teaching, research, community engagement and creative expression in a diverse and inclusive environment. Serving students, the state, and the communities of Southcentral Alaska, UAA is a comprehensive, open access, public university established on the ancestral lands of the Dena’ina, Ahtna, Alutiiq/Sugpiaq, and Eyak/dAXunhyuu Peoples. Vision: We are known as a university of distinction, transforming lives and communities. Aspirations: We put students first. We create a culture of equity and inclusion by embracing our diversity. We embrace our role as a trusted and respected community partner. We positively impact communities and the world through innovation. We accelerate excellence through continuous improvement.
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Recent Submissions
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Wildfire Exposure and Risk Assessment for Dillingham, Aleknagik, and Igiugig, AlaskaThe purpose of this report is to assess present-day (2024) and future (2054) wildfire hazard, exposure, and vulnerability within the Bristol Bay region. We also provide a wildfire risk assessment for Dillingham, Igiugig, and Aleknagik. These three communities were included explicitly because they are updating their Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPP) and/or provided support for this project.
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Demand for Natural Gas in Southcentral AlaskaHouseholds and businesses in Southcentral Alaska have relied on Cook Inlet natural gas as their primary energy source for decades, but as utilities face rising costs to secure that gas they are evaluating a portfolio of alternatives, including LNG imports, potential North Slope supplies, alternative fuels for electricity generation, and demand-side management, weighing each along dimensions of cost, timing, quantity, reliability, and long-term economic sustainability. Although technically recoverable gas remains in the Cook Inlet, it will likely be available only at increasingly higher prices, and the gap between lower-cost local supply and regional demand is expected to widen over time; currently identified alternative energy projects (particularly if limited to a narrower set of wind, solar, and geothermal developments) are insufficient on their own to close that deficit. Electrification of residential and commercial heating could reduce direct gas use but would raise electricity demand, potentially increasing gas consumption at gas-fired generators unless additional non-gas generation is developed, meaning the net gas savings are uncertain even though households and businesses may independently adopt such investments. Given these constraints, it is difficult to construct near-term scenarios that avoid LNG imports, while over the medium to long term a broader set of options, including expanded renewables and possible North Slope gas delivery, could partly or fully reduce reliance on imported LNG.
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Supply of Natural Gas in Southcentral AlaskaCook Inlet has been the primary source of natural gas for Southcentral Alaska for more than half a century, but while substantial gas remains in the subsurface, the portion that is physically, technically, economically, and socially available at prevailing prices is considerably smaller. This report evaluates regional availability using a four-dimensional resource framework, reconciles competing estimates of remaining reserves and resources, and considers implications for future supply security, with particular emphasis on economic availability and the prices required to make extraction profitable. Estimates from the Alaska Department of Natural Resources suggest that developing reserves in the near to medium term will require substantially higher prices than those seen today. Using historical production costs, this report constructs an illustrative cumulative availability curve showing that the basin’s lowest-cost gas has already been developed and that each additional unit of production will be progressively more expensive. As a result, the region is entering a transitional period in which imports (either piped gas from the North Slope or liquefied natural gas) may soon be more cost-competitive than new local development, even though large volumes of prospective gas remain and uncertainty about their recoverability and cost poses significant planning and investment risk.
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Minerals, Critical Minerals, and Strategic Minerals in Alaska: Challenges and OpportunitiesThis report examines the challenges and opportunities involved in increasing Alaska’s role in the U.S. critical minerals industry. It describes how critical minerals are defined, and which of those have been mined today, have been mined in the past or are likely to be mined in the near future. It describes how market conditions and geology affect Alaska’s opportunities to increase critical mineral production. It also describes how Alaska’s benefits from critical mineral production are the same as those from any mineral production: jobs, income, and taxes. Finally, the report makes recommendations for expanding critical mineral production.
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Advancing Wildfire Preparedness and Planning in Anchorage: Wildfire Exposure and Egress StudyAdvancing Wildfire Preparedness and Planning takes an in-depth look at the dynamic factors that are impacting wildfire occurrence for the most populated geographic area in the 49th State of Alaska, the Municipality of Anchorage (MOA). The length and severity of recent fire seasons pose a threat to those who have chosen a niche in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) area to call “home.” This report is a “call to action” in many ways, delving into some of the swings in weather patterns caused by climatic change. These subtle changes are at the root of the evolving wildfire danger and its effect on the 291,247 residents (2020 census) of the MOA. The objective of this report is to combine the knowledge of local wildfire managers with some unique geographic information system tools to help analyze and bring a better understanding of what residents can do to mitigate wildfire risk. The lengthening fire seasons, increase in fuel (vegetation) loadings, the upswing in wildfire occurrence statistics and diminishing budgets to provide for mitigation measures pose an increasingly higher risk for the potential loss of life, homes, and infrastructure. Hopefully, the recommendations found in the conclusion of this report will offer residents some clarity as to what should be in the cross hairs of their efforts as they navigate the potentially cataclysmic danger of a major wildfire within the WUI of the MOA.
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Report for AK PANOCESU Collaborative Effort to Develop a Statewide Wildfire Exposure Map (L22AC00566)To create a 2023 wildfire exposure map by updating the 2014 NASA ABoVE land cover data with recent wildfire activity at the statewide scale and make this map available online to the wildfire community for decision making. Also, to develop a crosswalk between the ABoVE landcover and LANDFIRE EVT to generate a statewide map that has extended coverage. Then test the performance of each wildfire exposure layer. An ABOVE land cover update is still expected by the end of the year that will be based on new Landsat remote sensed imagery and the coverage will be expanded in Alaska.
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Recruitment, Retention, and Retirement Plan Structure: Evidence from TeachersIn 2006, the State of Alaska closed its defined benefit retirement plan and required all newly hired public education employees—mostly teachers—to join a defined contribution plan. This paper examines whether that change in pension structure affected recruitment or retention in Alaska’s public education workforce.
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Applied Project management Methodologies to Create a Volunteer Engagement Guide for New Hope Nonprofit Organization's Volunteer ProgramNonprofit organizations (NPOs) rely on volunteers to sustain operations and fulfill their missions, yet many realize persistent challenges in recruiting, training, and keeping them. New Hope Compassionate Ministries (NHCM), a nonprofit organization in Alaska, has struggled to attract and keep volunteers for inventory and restock days—limitations that directly impact its ability to combat food insecurity. This project applies structured project management methodologies to find and address NHCM’s volunteer engagement gap. Through mixed-methods research, including surveys and interviews, the project analyzes current volunteer recruitment and retention practices to uncover underlying barriers. Findings inform the development of a Volunteer Engagement Guide designed to improve recruitment strategies, streamline coordination, and strengthen volunteer commitment. Using project management tools and techniques, NHCM will establish a sustainable volunteer training and feedback system that fosters ownership, transforms volunteers into active stakeholders, and enhances the organization's capacity to serve the community effectively. This initiative shows how project management principles can be adapted to nonprofit contexts to drive lasting operational impact.
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Application of a Nonprofit Project Management Methodology to Solid Rock Bible Camp Infrastructure PlanningOver the last decade, several costly infrastructure issues have been presented to Solid Rock Bible Camp (SRBC) due to deferred maintenance, poor record-keeping, and short-term, donation-based funding. This has cost the organization substantial time and money and has risked its ability to obtain insurance for its infrastructure. The application of project management principles to SRBC’s unique nonprofit structure and values identified SRBC's current infrastructure needs, pursued future infrastructure solutions, and prioritized future project recommendations. This project documented the campus’s current state and compared its inventory to industry standards and the needs of its stakeholders to find deficiencies. These deficiencies were prioritized by stakeholders based on their impact on SRBC’s mission statement and then ranked using a cost-benefit analysis. The products of this project delivered to SRBC included: Current Infrastructure Inventory, Photographs of Each Structure, Estimated Rebuild Costs, Infrastructure Report Card, Summary of Deficiencies Identified, Summary of Solutions and Costs, Prioritization of Project Solutions, and Site-Specific Best Practices.
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Creating a Virtual Event WebsiteThis Best of 10 Virtual Race project involved creating a virtual athletic event website designed to motivate participants to engage in multiple types of physical activity while providing a fair and engaging leaderboard system. Traditional virtual events often favor participants who specialize in a single activity, such as cycling or running long distances, making it difficult for multi-sport athletes to compete. This project addressed that gap by implementing a scoring system across multiple categories such as cardio, ball sports, racket sports, weight training, outdoor activities, etc. where lower cumulative scores indicate better overall performance. This approach encourages participants to improve in weaker areas and explore activities they may not normally try. The platform was built using RunSignUp, which allows secure registration, payment processing, activity logging, and leaderboard management. The project included updates and refinements to ensure usability, scoring accuracy, and a user-friendly experience for a broad audience of active individuals. A trial event is planned to be held to validate the platform, demonstrating that it meets project goals and supports a fullscale launch. The final deliverable is a fully functional, scalable, and intuitive website capable of hosting virtual fitness events that are inclusive, competitive, and engaging, providing a new way for participants to challenge themselves across multiple activity types.
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Assessing Readiness for Point-Of-Care Ultrasound Implemenatation in a NeoNatal Intensive Care UnitPoint-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is an emerging diagnostic tool in neonatal care, yet widespread use in NICUs remains limited by provider training, confidence and organizational readiness. The purpose of this evidence-based practice project was to evaluate whether a brief POCUS educational intervention improved NICU provider readiness for adoption. Using a pre/post design, NICU providers at a regional tertiary NICU in Alaska completed the POCUS Readiness and Adoption Survey (PRAS) immediately before and after a structured 45-minute POCUS orientation presentation. The PRAS measured six domains: knowledge, attitudes, change efficacy, organizational support, intent to adopt, and perceived barriers. Twelve providers completed both surveys. Paired t-test analysis demonstrated significant improvements in knowledge (p < .001), attitudes (p = .022), change efficacy (p = .011), organizational support (p = .001), and intent to adopt POCUS (p = .006). Qualitative responses emphasized enthusiasm for POCUS integration and identified needs for structured training, clear credentialing pathways, and increased equipment access. Guided by the Iowa Model and Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations, this project established foundational readiness and identified system-level barriers to adoption. Findings indicate that when provided with an appraisal of evidence, there is support for moving forward with comprehensive POCUS training, competency development, and interdisciplinary implementation planning to enhance diagnostic safety and neonatal care outcomes.
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Capitalization of Bundled Amenities and Hazards in Home Prices: The Case of Wildfire ExposureWildfires represent a growing threat to property and human life due to climate change and development into higher exposure areas. These risks are particularly salient in the Arctic and subarctic where changes are occurring quickly. This paper uses a hedonic model of home sale prices in Alaska to estimate individuals’ willingness to pay to avoid wildfire exposure. A hedonic housing price analysis shows that the homes most exposed to wildfire actually sell at a premium compared to those homes that are least exposed. However, this premium disappears once proximity to public firefighting infrastructure is accounted for, suggesting that the premium reflects public mitigation and moral hazard. These findings highlight the influence of mitigation efforts and moral hazard in buyers' willingness to pay. Homeowners currently have an economic incentive to locate in high risk areas; more sophisticated insurance risk models and better aligning local taxes with risk may be potential policy interventions.
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ALASKKKA - The Invisible Empire in the Last Frontier: A Look into the 1920s Klan of the NorthWhen discussing hate groups in North America, few evoke as immediate and visceral a reaction as the Ku Klux Klan. Often regarded as a symbol of radical white supremacist ideology, the Klan is widely associated with the American South; its white hoods, burning crosses, and Confederate flags have become enduring emblems of racial hatred and extremist nationalism. While many assume the Klan's influence was confined to Southern states, the reality is far more expansive and troubling. During its resurgence in the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan extended its reach well beyond its traditional strongholds, gaining footholds in states such as Idaho, Washington, and, most infamously, Oregon. Surprisingly, and often overlooked in historical discourse, the Klan's influence even reached into America's most remote and rugged territory: Alaska, the so-called Last Frontier. Where explicitly and implicitly attempted (and possibly in some areas succeed) to influence race relations, politics, and community organizations.
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The effects of winter street treatment on Chester Creek Water Quality During Snow Melt EventsWater quality parameters for temperature, electrical conductivity, dissolved oxygen, pH, and turbidity and ion activity for calcium, chloride, and magnesium were measured during a period of five winters at eight locations along Chester Creek that flows from the Chugach Mountains east of the Municipality of Anchorage through the Municipality to the west into Knik Arm. The goal of the project was to identify the impact of meltwater on water quality due to common winter street treatments. Each year had its unique conditions. Melt events occurred when air temperature reached above freezing which were sometimes accompanied by rain events that enhanced snowmelt. Melt events throughout the season varied between four and nine with no considerable trend over the duration of the project. Maximum snowpack due to record snowfall occurred in winter 2022/2023 and 2023/2024. Electrical conductivity, which measured the total ion concentration in the water, and turbidity, which measured the concentration of particles, showed the major impact on water quality during melt events. Both parameters can be related to street treatments with salt/deicer and sand/gravel which are used on streets, parking lots, and walkways to reduce hazardous conditions, and both parameters generally increase from the east to the west as the creek runs through the Municipality. The highest electrical conductivity and turbidity were measured in the Middle Fork of Chester Creek at the Northern Lights location and directly in storm drainages at the Seward Highway location. The electrical conductivity correlated well with chloride concentration--a major compound of deicing agents and salts. This supports the assumption that the increase in electrical conductivity is due to street treatments. The total amount of ions, derived from electrical conductivity, is related to the area of each sub basin upstream from each sampling location, and indicates that the sub basin of the Seward Highway sampling location contributes fewer total ions to the creek per sub basin area than other sub basins. Comparing the measured values to water quality standards for aquatic life and propagation (18 AAC 70 Water Quality Standards, March 2020), the electrical conductivity should not exceed 1,500 µS/cm, and this value was only exceeded once on March 26, 2021 in the Middle Fork. Turbidity should not exceed background values by more than 10%. Background values for the sampling locations derived from times before freezing and in the absence of rain range from 0.7 to 5.17 NTU from east to west. Values measured during melt events and summer rain events frequently exceeded this water quality standard.
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Alaska aviation weather infrastructure: outage patterns and strategic prioritizationAlaska is the most aviation dependent state in the United States of America, with almost a quarter of the population and the majority of named communities lying off of the limited road system. The importance of reliable aviation transportation, and the infrastructure underlying these networks, is paramount for these communities. However, the vast distances, remoteness, and rugged environments that make aviation so critical also make maintaining aviation infrastructure particularly challenging. The goal of this report is to serve as a reference document for mapping outages in a subset of core aviation infrastructure – aviation weather stations. We have gathered what we believe is a complete outage history of the 151 “Automated Weather Observation Stations” (AWOS) and “Automated Surface Observation Stations” (ASOS) units in the state from primary Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Weather Service (NWS) outage records over the period of January 2019 to November 2023. We map these outages over space and time and link them to the key hub-and-spoke aviation supply chain networks in the state (e.g. USPS Bypass Mail). By linking infrastructure performance to the populations of communities served, we underscore the protracted impact of AWOS and ASOS outages on Alaska’s remote and predominantly Native populations in off-road communities. This analysis should help policymakers in this critical period of investment prioritization, following injections of capital investment funding from the Don Young Alaska Aviation Safety Initiative (DYAASI) within the 2024 FAA Reauthorization Bill. We conclude by outlining key ongoing extensions of this analysis, with direct hypotheses to be tested.
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Alaska aviation weather infrastructure: outage patterns and strategic prioritizationAlaska is the most aviation dependent state in the United States of America, with almost a quarter of the population and the majority of named communities lying off of the limited road system. The importance of reliable aviation transportation, and the infrastructure underlying these networks, is paramount for these communities. However, the vast distances, remoteness, and rugged environments that make aviation so critical also make maintaining aviation infrastructure particularly challenging. The goal of this report is to serve as a reference document for mapping outages in a subset of core aviation infrastructure – aviation weather stations. We have gathered what we believe is a complete outage history of the 151 “Automated Weather Observation Stations” (AWOS) and “Automated Surface Observation Stations” (ASOS) units in the state from primary Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Weather Service (NWS) outage records over the period of January 2019 to November 2023. By mapping them over space and time, and linking to the key hub-and-spoke aviation supply chain networks in the state (e.g. USPS Bypass Mail) and well as populations of communities served, we underscore the protracted impact of infrastructure outages on Alaska’s remote and predominantly Native populations in off-road communities. This analysis should help policymakers in this critical period of investment prioritization, following injections of capital investment funding from the Don Young Alaska Aviation Safety Initiative (DYAASI) within the 2024 FAA Reauthorization Bill. We conclude by outlining key ongoing extensions of this analysis, with direct hypotheses to be tested.
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Dual enrollment at the University of Alaska, 2018-2024This paper details trends in dual enrollment participation and student outcomes at the University of Alaska.
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Alaska’s transportation workforce detours: Maximizing training opportunities and outcomes in DOT&PF’s key industriesCommissioned by the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities in fall 2023, this report examines Alaska’s workforce in nine priority construction occupations, including laborers, carpenters, electricians, and truck drivers. The study aimed to assess current workforce characteristics, forecast growth, and explore strategies to increase participation by underrepresented groups such as women, people of color, and rural residents. Using interviews, surveys, labor data, and public datasets, the report presents detailed industry profiles that cover job nature, wages, workforce demographics, growth projections, training availability, and recruitment challenges. Key findings show that Alaska’s construction workforce is aging, with significant shortages projected across all priority occupations - particularly for truck drivers and operating engineers. Women represent a small fraction of the workforce, though training programs report higher female enrollment than current field representation. Rural and minority student participation remains low. Common challenges cited by employers include worker shortages, lack of skills, competition, and limited rural workforce availability. The report outlines crosscutting strategies to grow the workforce: expanding accessible training, targeted outreach, improving job value and retention, building partnerships, offering competitive compensation, and providing support services such as travel, housing, and childcare.
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Alaska’s Type M teacher workforce: An overviewThis policy brief gives an overview of Alaska’s Type M teacher workforce with information about the demographics, teaching assignments, and retention rates of Type M teachers. The paper discusses the state policies around teacher certification, and considers the implications and limitations of the Type M certificate in the context of teacher retention and representation.
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Alaska educator survey: Instrument development reportThis report details the survey development methodology for a statewide survey of in-service K-12 educators in Alaska. It describes the comprehensive literature review, document analysis, shareholder listening sessions, and cognitive interviewing activities that went into survey development.
