Category: Alaska News

The University of Alaska Board of Regents announced Matt Cooper as the new university president on Friday, after a closed-door, confidential hiring search.

Cooper is a Fairbanks-based attorney, and formerly served as legal representation for the university starting in 2011 and later as general counsel to the university from 2021 to 2024.

He will replace Pat Pitney, who announced her retirement in November, after 30 years of public service and five years as university president. She is planning to step down later this month. The regents said Cooper will begin his term on August 3.

The board appointed Michelle Rizk, vice president of university relations and chief strategy, planning and budget officer, to serve as interim president during the transition period from May 22 to August.

Following an executive session Friday, the board voted unanimously to select Cooper. Board of Regents Chair Scott Jepsen said after the vote that Copper was selected from among 50 candidates.

“I think he brings a management style to university, which will help us be collaborative and work as a team to achieve the goals that we have set for the university,” Jepsen said. “We have a lot of challenges in front of us, and it’s going to take a skill set that has good interpersonal skills, understands the university, understands Alaska, and has that vision of where we want to go.” 

UA President Pat Pitney told board members she was pleased with the selection.

“I’ve had the pleasure to work with Matt over the years, and he is a genuine leader. He looks for win-win solutions. He’s worked on numerous issues and opportunities for the university at all levels. So he knows he knows our institution, he knows the people he’s just going to bring a really strong energy and strong leadership to our university,” she said. 

Cooper has been practicing law in Alaska since 2003. He is leaving a position with the law firm Davis Wright Tremaine, LLP where he focused on real estate and land use issues in Alaska, Washington state and other areas, according to the firm’s website. 

He received a law degree from the University of Washington School of Law, and a bachelor’s degree at the University of Puget Sound. 

Cooper will be charged with the chief executive role overseeing the state’s public university system across three university campuses, 13 community campuses and over 500 in-person and online degree programs, as well as a wide range of research initiatives. Currently, roughly 20,000 students are enrolled this year. 

Cooper will continue to live in Fairbanks. He will earn a base salary of $420,000, with a total compensation package of $429,600 excluding benefits, according to the university. 

That’s a slight increase from Pitney’s total compensation package of $427,565, which included a housing stipend and excluded benefits.

In a statement following the announcement, Cooper said he was grateful for the appointment. 

“I’ve seen firsthand how UA empowers our communities and state, and I believe strongly that the future on our horizon is bright,” he said. “I look forward to building on the strong foundation President Pitney has established, and to working with the Board and university leadership and governance to support and advance the university’s long-term vision and goals.”

University changes hiring process

Cooper was one of three finalists for the top university position. Regents and university officials opted to conduct a closed-door, confidential hiring process that began last winter, instead of holding public forums and interviews of finalists.

The change in process was at the recommendation of a Texas-based hiring consultant, Wietkeffer, to protect candidates’ confidentiality and potentially draw from a larger applicant pool, said Jepsen in a Feb. 16 letter. 

“In recent years, highly qualified candidates – especially sitting presidents and chancellors – have declined to participate in searches with a fully public evaluation process for finalists due to concerns about professional risk if they are not selected for the role,” he wrote. “Adopting a representative model helps ensure UA can attract and seriously consider the strongest possible candidates while still incorporating meaningful stakeholder input.”

The university’s hiring committee — made up of three regents, industry leaders, and university, city and education officials — narrowed the list down to six semifinalists, then three finalists.

Finalists made campus visits and met with select  “constituent groups” this spring that included faculty, staff and student representatives from across the university system, according to a presidential search update. Each participant was required to sign a non-disclosure agreement, or NDA.

The groups submitted input to the Board of Regents, who made the final decision to select Cooper.

Correction: This story has been updated to clarify Michelle Rizk currently serves as the vice president of relations for the University of Alaska, and to reflect that the university’s candidate search narrowed down to three finalists from six semifinalists.

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The Alaska House of Representatives advanced two bills relating to certified nurse aide training and home health care workers this week in an effort to support Alaska’s growing senior population.

The bills aim to regulate Alaska’s health care by setting training standards for CNAs and regulating wages and conditions for caregivers.

HB 244, sponsored by Rep. Jubilee Underwood, R-Wasilla, would establish eleven standards of a CNA training program at no cost to the state to ensure that patients receive competent health care. The bill passed with 39 yes votes. Rep. David Nelson, R-0Anchorage was excused absent.

“It simply says through regulation, CNA training should reflect the real job, communicating with patients, recognizing behavioral changes, supporting dignity and independence and properly caring for people with cognitive conditions,” Underwood said.

The House also advanced HB 96, sponsored by Rep. Mike Prax, R-North Pole, which would establish a Home Care Employment Standards Advisory Board to investigate and provide a biennial report on wages, workforce and working conditions for home care personnel. The board would be required to meet at least three times annually. The bill also ensures that 70% of Medicaid funding to agencies providing home and community-based services will go directly to employees and benefits.

“The home care industry has kind of developed organically if you will and there are no professional licensing requirements at this time, but they do need to set up some recognizable standard to organize the industry for purposes of pay and services,” Prax said.

The bill passed 35-5 in the House Monday and advanced to the Senate for consideration.

Alexis Rodich, director of Alaska and Montana SEIU 775, a union representing long-term care workers, said in April that the bill is a solution to a caregiver workforce crisis and provides accountability for Medicaid dollars.

The Health Department stated in the fiscal note that it would cost approximately $378,900 annually and would require the department to hire two full-time health program managers.

Rep. Jamie Allard, R-Eagle River, voted against the bill. She said Monday that she supports the need for home care employment positions but suggested consolidating the duties of the Home Care Employment Standards Advisory Board into another Health Department board.

Rep. Zack Fields, D-Anchorage, supported the bill and said that it is in the state’s best financial interest to maintain a functioning home health care work force.

“It both minimizes our long-term expenses for long-term care while keeping our elders in the place they prefer to stay, which is in their home with their family,” he said.

According to Rodich, personal care services are 45-90% less costly than nursing facilities or Alaska pioneer homes.

Shanah Kinison, a caregiver for a child with disabilities, wrote that she sees caregivers leaving the state and the bill could support caregivers, clients and their families.

“I support HB96 because it will address the shortage of caregivers in Alaska, the disparity in wages & training, and resolve other issues facing caregivers & their clients,” Kinison said.

Vanessa Liston, a caregiver for one of her children, supported the bill in a letter to legislators and said that the bill could improve her son’s life.

“This bill could upgrade the caregivers and give capability to hire strong caregivers that have pride in their job!! This is so important to the folks with disabilities and would be a game changer for growth for the future!!” she wrote.

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Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed a bipartisan bill aimed at streamlining the state’s elections process on Thursday, just seven months ahead of high-stakes state and federal elections in November.

Leaders with the multipartisan House Majority caucus said there will be a joint legislative veto override vote within the next few days.

In a prepared statement announcing the veto, Dunleavy said while there are many provisions in the bills he supports, the bill contained “legal and operational challenges and could jeopardize the election process.” He told lawmakers his two main issues with the bill are related to when it would go into effect and voters’ signature verification.

“The Division of Elections warns such changes would be extremely difficult if not impossible, to implement securely and reliably in advance of the 2026 elections,” he wrote in a transmittal letter to the Legislature. He said the Division needs sufficient time to make necessary changes. 

The Alaska House passed the bill in March along caucus lines, following passage by the Senate last year. It contained a variety of changes to the state’s elections system, which supporters say is years overdue and needed to update and strengthen the elections process and expand voter access. 

The governor said that the bill would impose “significant operational hurdles” for the Alaska Division of Elections in administering state and federal elections in November. 

Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, who carried the legislation in the Senate, condemned the decision in a written statement following the announcement.

“Governor Dunleavy has said, by his veto, that Alaska’s elections are secure enough,” Wielechowski said. “Unfortunately, they are not, and even his supporters confirm that. Our voter rolls stood at 114% of the voting-age population in 2022. Ballots are being rejected over technical errors. Tampering with a voting machine is not explicitly a crime under current law. This bill addressed every one of those concerns. The Governor had every reason to sign it.”

The bill would have authorized checks to update Alaska’s voter rolls. Officials have said managing an updated voter registration list is a continuous challenge with Alaska’s transitional environment and many residents moving in and out of state, resulting in the number of registered voters currently outnumbering actual eligible voters in state. 

The bill would also have enacted a new ballot tracking system, provided paid postage for all absentee mail-in ballots, strengthened security protocols, and  implemented provisions for faster elections results, among others.

The Legislature has five days to convene in a joint session to consider an override of Dunleavy’s veto. A majority of 40 votes of the Legislature’s 60 members are needed for an override. 

“There will be a veto override vote. I don’t think it will come as a surprise to the governor,” said House Speaker Rep. Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, in a call Thursday evening. 

On Thursday afternoon, members of the House Majority caucus slammed the decision Thursday following the announcement, saying in a joint statement the veto is “a significant setback for election integrity and a direct blow to voting access for Alaskans living in rural and off-road communities.”

Edgmon called the decision “deeply disappointing.”

“This was a bipartisan effort to address the real challenges of voting in a state as vast, rural and remote as Alaska. We worked in good faith to improve access, strengthen transparency, and maintain the integrity of our elections,” Edgmon said. “Alaskans deserve a system that reflects our unique geography, not one that ignores it. This veto does exactly that.”

Rep. Nellie Unangiq Jimmie, D-Toksook Bay, said that rural Alaska “is the hardest place in the state” to vote. 

“Everyone who has looked at the data knows that. We passed a bill to clean up our rolls and remove barriers. It will not become law today,” she said.  “My people have been patient with systems that were not built for us, distances that were not considered, delays inevitable in rural areas beyond our control. So today, the problem doesn’t go away. Neither do we.”

Dunleavy also took issue with provisions to establish a ballot tracking system and to allow voters to fix mistakes on their ballot — a process called ballot curing — by requiring the division to contact the voter by phone or email within 24 hours. Under the bill, voters would have been allowed to return a form to correct the ballot with a copy of identification by email or by mail within 10 days of the election for their ballot to be counted.  

“The ballot-tracking and ballot-curing provisions are especially problematic,” Dunleavy wrote. “The ballot-curing provisions create tension with Alaska’s witness requirement by allowing a voter to cure a missing witness signature after the ballot has already been returned, even though Alaska’s absentee-ballot framework requires the voters certificate to be signed in the presence of a qualified attesting official or witness.”

The governor sent a letter following a meeting with presiding officers of the Legislature on Thursday with technical changes he’d like to see in legislation for fixing ballots, evaluating and verifying signatures.

Dunleavy said the potential Alaska gas line is his main priority, but he’s open to continuing negotiations on the elections bill this session.

“While the Alaska gas line bill is the most important bill this session, I am open to a conversation with lawmakers on how we can address the legal and operational issues this session.”

Other provisions in the now vetoed bill would have included:

• Require all absentee ballots to be received within 10 days of Election Day; 
• Establish a new rural community liaison position within the Division of Elections to support rural districts, including recruitment and training of poll workers;
• Require the Permanent Fund Dividend Division to share data to improve the accuracy of the voter rolls’
• Require the state to develop a cybersecurity program, and notify the public if there is a data breach;
• Require the division to publish results for all rankings in the precinct results.
• Require presidential ballots to include a line for write-in votes for president and vice president 
• Updates crimes of unlawful interference with an election, ballot tampering and election official misconduct

Dunleavy said he applauded the Legislature’s efforts, but said the state needs more time to make changes to the state’s elections system.

“I appreciate the efforts made to improve Alaska’s elections. Going forward, I encourage those who wish to continue this work to use this bill as a starting point; ensure that any proposed changes comply with state and federal law; and pass any election legislation on a timeline that allows the Division of Elections to implement the necessary systems properly,” he said.

Edgmon said that the issues Dunleavy raised were “highly subjective” and lawmakers had heard from the division and the lieutenant governor, who is charged with overseeing state elections, that the timeline for implementing the bill was doable.

Edgmon said it’s unclear if there are the votes to override.

“You never know until the votes are tallied. You just never know,” he said. “And I know there will be plenty of votes. Will there be enough? I’m not going to hazard a guess at this point, because I’ve been proven wrong before.” 

This story has been updated as of 6 p.m.

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An Alaska woman is accusing the Alaska Department of Public Safety, two Alaska State Troopers and the A&E Television Network of compromising her privacy and safety as a confidential informant after they filmed an arrest without her consent.

The woman, identified in the filings as Jane Doe, says that she received death threats after she was a confidential informant whose information led to an arrest that was filmed and later aired on the Alaska State Troopers reality show.

The woman’s attorney, Jeff Barber, declined to comment on the case and said that he plans to file a motion to make the case confidential for her safety.

In court filings, Barber argued that the defendants had a duty to protect the confidential informant from harm. Barber wrote, “the defendants were motivated by fame, fortune or financial gain,” and they exploited Jane Doe’s “life and safety for profit and/or personal gain.”

The television show followed troopers in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, Fairbanks, Western Alaska and Valdez in 2025. A&E Television Network aired nine episodes of the show between January and March 2026.

The lawsuit names Alaska State Troopers Scott McAfee and Lucas Altepeter, the Alaska Department of Public Safety, the show’s executive producer Anna Rodzinski and her company Anusia Films LLC, and A&E Television Networks LLC as defendants. Jane Doe is suing each defendant for $100,000.

According to a complaint filed in state court on April 23, Jane Doe assisted the Alaska State Troopers as a confidential informant in 2025 and was later threatened by a person who suspected her of being a confidential informant. She assisted troopers for a second time in 2025 and a film crew filmed troopers arresting the person who suspected Doe. 

Jane Doe told McAfee, a trooper, that she objected to A&E filming the arrest, and court documents say troopers relayed Doe’s objection to the film crew. According to the filing, the film crew filmed the arrest anyway. This caused Jane Doe “severe emotional distress and harm.”

In the lawsuit, Jane Doe’s attorneys claim that the crew filmed the episode in a way that could reveal Jane Doe’s identity and involvement. After the episode aired, Jane Doe received hostile communications and death threats.

Jane Doe suffered “medical expense, pain, anxiety, suffering, severe emotional distress, inconvenience, security and privacy expenses,” Barber wrote in the filing.

The case alleges that McAfee and Altepeter’s negligence and recklessness breached their duty and created danger to Jane Doe.

Barber accused the defendants of violating Jane Doe’s right to privacy and right to due process, and their actions inflicted intentional emotional distress.

Austin McDaniel, communications director for the Department of Public Safety, told the Alaska Beacon by email Wednesday that DPS had not been formally served with the lawsuit yet and will respond in court.

“We take the safety of all Alaskans extremely seriously and reject any suggestion that DPS personnel would knowingly endanger anyone’s life,” McDaniel stated.

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Ricardo Mop has been part of the custodial crew at Royal Caribbean for six years, but this spring was his first time working anywhere on the Alaska route.

“I guess you could say I was pretty surprised,” said Mop, pulling down a scarf. “I was used to wiping sunscreen spills off deck chairs and picking up margarita glasses off the lido deck. Now here I am in a parka and ice-climbing gear with a vacuum cleaner.”

Mop and a dozen other janitors from Dystopia of the Seas, a 2,000-foot Royal Caribbean cruise ship, were cleaning the Sawyer Glacier in Tracy Arm fjord before the start of cruise season in Southeast Alaska. Most cruise companies that regularly include glacier viewing in their itineraries contract janitors to spruce up the ice, but only Royal Caribbean has an entire crew dedicated to the task. Geraldine Swiffer, Chief Spick n’ Span Officer aboard Dystopia, stated “Royal Caribbean is dedicated to giving its guests the best possible cruise experience and we are legendary for our ships’ cleanliness. To that end, we also tidy up the glaciers before showing them off to visitors.”

The crews consist of teams of dirt sweepers and vacuumers, high-powered leaf blowers, tanzanite graders, ice-worm exterminators, as well as custom-built four-wheel-drive Zambonis. Driver Brice Scate told reporters that the valley glaciers were usually the dirtiest. “Medial moraines are like dirt-central. Very unsightly. Imagine if you came all the way up here and all the nice white ice was covered in rock and dirt. And all the katabatic winds kicking up silt, rockslides and glacial retreat—it’s a complex janitorial environment.”

When asked how long they were at the glaciers, Ricardo Mop replied, “What? Can’t hear over the cracking sounds. We’re at Sawyer Glacier now, still got Dawes Glacier, the Hubbard, the Mendenhall. It’s a lot of vacuum bags. There’s that cracking sound again, what’s that? A tree falling?”

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The main gallery of the Sheldon Museum has gotten its first overhaul in nearly a decade, and the new look debuts Friday. 

Residents accustomed to the previous gallery exhibit will find a re-arranged space with a higher density of information and objects. Some large centerpieces remain, including a display case of Chilkat blankets and Eldred Rock lighthouse’s  Fresnel lens. But most of the exhibit has not been on display, including a new collection on loan from Excursion Inlet’s cannery museum. 

As for the space itself, the previously open-floor look has been replaced by standing panels arranged with an eye toward a more intentional flow, museum director Brandon Wilks said. 

The new exhibit is the product of a year-and-a-half’s work from lead curator Andrea Nelson and Blythe Carter. 

Nelson, an on-again-off-again museum contributor over the past two decades, said her goal was to “home in on what makes this place different from other places in Southeast Alaska, other places in Lingít territory.”

Nelson focused on the physical topography of the land and the trade routes that ran up corridors into the interior. 

“I felt like (the exhibit) needed some kind of grounding narrative, instead of just peppering the audience with facts about the place,” Nelson said. 

From the gallery entrance, viewers first see a large canoe carved by Wayne Price. The canoe is meant to orient visitors in a historical landscape before highways, where water-based travel was often the quickest and easiest route. 

From there, visitors walk out into the center of the floor, which includes panels on Lingít trade empires, with porcelain originating in China on display. 

“Even people who feel like they know Chilkat Valley history might not realize the extent of Lingít trade, that they had one of the largest trade empires in the Americas,” Wilks said. 

Wilks and Nelson described the museum’s limited space as a challenge in displaying the valley’s historical breadth. 

“Recalling history is a really botched process, no matter how careful you are,” Nelson said. “A story can be told in so many ways from so many different perspectives.” 

Part of Nelson’s approach to that problem, she said, was to let the museum’s collection lead the narrative, “letting the objects speak,” as she put it. At the same time, she added, the approach introduces other challenges. For instance, the fact that the museum’s collection is determined by what can be acquired or donated, not necessarily what has the most historical significance. 

For his part, Wilks said he invites visitors to provide feedback on the history and is leaving open the possibility of adjusting the exhibit in the coming months.  

Alongside older art and archaeological artifacts, the museum will display a significant amount of work from renowned contemporary carvers, like Price and Ed Kasko, as well as a new retrospective on late Chilkat Valley painter Carol Clifton. 

Wilks said the museum has hosted art students in the past year to see the work, including high schoolers participating in this week’s regional Art Fest. 

The Clifton exhibit, curated by Donna Catotti and on display in the museum’s Elisabeth Hakkinen gallery, shows a range of Clifton’s local landscapes and portrait work. Starting Friday, the paintings will be up for silent auction, with 60% of proceeds going to the Clifton family and 40% going to the Haines Sheldon Museum.  

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Barbara Pardee last saw her friend Carol Clifton around August 2025. 

Clifton hadn’t left her Dusty Trails apartment in months. She needed oxygen at that point and was self-conscious about the size of her tank. But once inside Pardee’s car, she didn’t want to go home. As they drove, Clifton pointed out old homes, old stories, old neighbors from 56 years of living in the Chilkat Valley. 

They went out to Mud Bay and passed by John Svenson’s art studio. 

“He saw me and we’re friends. But then he saw Carol and he just came right over,” Pardee said. “She rolled down her window and those two talked for at least 30 minutes. They just talked up a storm. She was just that way with everybody. If you were her friend, you were always her friend.” 

Clifton died Feb. 27 in Juneau after doctors discovered an advanced lung mass following a January fall.  She was 88 years old.  

Clifton and her twin brother were born Aug. 15, 1937, in Los Angeles. She was one of five children born to Finnish immigrants Emil William Hakkila and Frances Lavalle Hakkila. 

After high school, she moved to Fairbanks to work as a waitress in a cafe run by the mother of her childhood best friend, Gail Hay. 

“Alaska had just become a state and it seemed safe enough,” her son, Kim Clifton, said. “So off she went. And I’m sure it was quite the journey in 1959.” 

There, she met her future husband Jerry Clifton, and the couple eventually settled in Haines in 1969. They raised six children: Jerry, Kim, Van, Christine, Kelly, and Ralph. 

Kim said Carol worked at, and loved, being a good mom. With six children, the inevitable fight would break out and she would referee the situation to get everyone to calm down and make peace with one another. 

Clifton was always reaching for positivity, which, when combined with her quick humor, was a powerful tool. “Now I understand it to be something where … it was like a daily practice for her,” he said. 

The family  eventually bought three acres across from Portage Cove where Jerry built a three-story home overlooking the campground. Carol set up an easel in the corner of the house. 

“She was always painting something,” Kim said. “She’d get out her little palette and with all the colors and it was just part of where we were living. Part of the decor you might say.”

Pardee said when she first became aware of Clifton, it was from the paintings on small pans hanging at a local cafe. 

Pardee said it was fun to watch Carol’s artistic talent grow from small gold pans to large murals on the wall at the Captain’s Choice Motel. 

“She really studied it,” Pardee said. “Once she took me into the back bedroom and she had every art magazine and all of her art books. She said, ‘This is my college education right here.’”

Pardee said she will miss the depth that Carol brought to their friendship. Her intellectual curiosity led to constant reinvention. 

“She loved to learn. She never stopped, ever,” Pardee said. “You always admire somebody like that.” 

Clifton’s paintings often started with a trip up the Haines Highway, where she photographed  landscapes and wildlife. Eventually she became known for those photos as well, said longtime friend, Teresa Land. Land met Clifton in 1973 when asked to play piano in her home studio. 

“She thought I was going to play a two-bit thing, but … I just let loose,” playing a concerto by Felix Mendelssohn, Land said. 

It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship built on music, art and gardening.  

Friends say creativity spilled into every corner of Clifton’s life, from towering nasturtiums at her Beach Road home, to handmade Christmas cards, embroidery and carved fishing corks she gifted to family. 

She seemed to find joy in using her talents to make life brighter for others, her son said. And, for many in Haines, that included creations that emerged from her kitchen. 

“She loved making cream puffs and dropping by and surprising folks,” Kim said. “They were always little masterpieces, her cream puffs are just legendary.” 

Over time, Clifton became Haines’ de facto cake maker — something nearly every friend mentioned. Friends described them as  fluffy, textured, highly stylized: they could have flowers, pearls, ribbons, you name it. She also made puff pastries and a special almond bread for Christmas. 

“That stuff that people don’t like to make themselves but they like to eat,” Pardee said.

Alongside all of that creative energy Clifton used humor to connect with her friends, teasing them, making them laugh. 

“She called it loving on them,” Pardee said. “She would tell you the truth and she was not afraid to give you a barb if she thought you needed it.’ 

She also took great joy in telling people about her faith, something that deepened immensely in spring 1981, according to Kim. 

The family spent much of their early time in Haines attending the Presbyterian Church but toward the end of her life, she attended the Haines Christian Center — Assembly of God church. Kim, who is a pastor in the Houston area, said the two bonded over their spirituality. 

“She shared her faith freely with anyone and everyone,” Pardee said. “If you knew Carol Clifton, you knew where she came from, what she believed and what she stood for.” 

In her immediate family Carol was preceded in death by her husband, Jerry, and brothers, Don, Carl and Ralph Hakkila. 

Carol is survived by her six children—Jerry, Kim, Van, Christine (Clifton-Thornton), Kelly and Ralph Clifton — as well as her sister, Pennie Peterson, eight grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held July 3, 2026 at 6 p.m. at the Haines Christian Center. 

A retrospective showing of her paintings at the Haines Sheldon Museum with an opening reception is scheduled for Friday, May 1. 

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