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What's New

August 8, 2019

August 21st: Breakfast with the Chairman of the NEH

Topics: Education Events

Date:

August 21st, 2019

Time:

7:30am-8:30am

Location:

3301 C Street

CWN Presents
The Value of Civic Education

August 21st
7:30am-8:30am

Breakfast
The Petroleum Club of Anchorage
3301 C Street

Video of this program is available online.

Commonwealth North welcomes Jon Parrish Peede, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, to our August forum. He will discuss the value of civic education in growing our communities. For over thirty years, CWN’s mission has been to educate Alaskans on the critical issues facing our state and identify effective solutions. We believe it is essential that Alaskans are well informed and engage in the public arena to debate the policies that will create opportunities and improve the quality of life for Alaskans.

About the National Endowment for the Humanities

President Lyndon Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act in 1965 to support research, preservation, education, and public programs in the humanities. NEH has awarded more than 64,000 grants since 1965, totaling $5.5 billion, and has leveraged in today’s dollars nearly $4.1 billion in private matching donations. That public investment has led to the creation of books, films, museum exhibits, and online resources.

Jon Parrish Peede’s previous positions include publisher of the Virginia Quarterly Review (VQR) at the University of Virginia, literature grants director at the National Endowment for the Arts, counselor to NEA Chairman Dana Gioia, director of the NEA Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience program, director of the NEA Big Read program, director of communications at Millsaps College, and editor at Mercer University Press with a focus on the humanities. He has written speeches for a U.S. president, a first lady, and a librarian of Congress. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Vanderbilt University, and a master’s in Southern Studies from the University of Mississippi.

Table sponsorships available

Contact the CWN office at (907) 258-9524 for details.

August 7, 2019

August 9th: Food Security Study Group

CWN Food Security Study Group

Friday, August 9th

8:00am-9:00am

(doors open at 7:45am)

First National Bank Alaska, Operations Center

1751 Gambell St

(Google Map)

Friday morning we will have two briefings via teleconference. Note our meeting location at FNBA on Gambell.

David Weisz, President and CEO of Three Bears Alaska, will discuss Alaska’s food supply chain and contingencies in the event of a disruption.

Nicole Gueck, Risk Management Specialist at Agrilogic Consulting, LLC, a Texas based agricultural consulting firm that has been advising Alaskan farmers for decades. They utilize USDA grants and other federal programs to help farmers with crop insurance, recovering from a natural disasters, and other consulting services. They also assist new farmers entering the business.

(Google Map)

July 30, 2019

August 2nd: Fiscal Policy Study Group

Topics: Events Fiscal

Fiscal Policy Study Group

Friday, August 2nd

8:00am-9:00am

First National Bank Alaska, Operations Center

1751 Gambell St

(Google Map)

On Friday we will have a briefing from Tim Mearig, Facilities manager for the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development. Tim will discuss the role of State debt in funding education. He will give us an historical perspective of education funding sources in Alaska as well as State funding options such as grants, school bond reimbursement and the Rural Education Attendance Area Fund.

Tim’s PowerPoint presentation can be downloaded here.

Click here to download handout.

July 29, 2019

July 29: Evening Reception

Commonwealth North Reception

An evening with an Alaska Dinosaur Hunter!

Monday, July 29th

5:30pm-7:30pm

The Petroleum Club of Anchorage

3301 C Street

Tonight, Commonwealth North will host a reception of good food, drinks, conversation, and dinosaurs! It’s a fun, family-friendly event, so we encourage you to bring your kids!

On Monday evening we will host paleontologist Anthony Fiorillo, Ph.D., Vice President of Research and Collections and Chief Curator at the Ross Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas. He will share his stories from his dinosaur hunts and what his groundbreaking work in Alaska can tell us about Alaska’s past, its environment, and our future.

Tony’s presentation can be viewed online here.

Dr. Fiorillo made news in 2001 when he found the first record of a dinosaur in any Alaskan national park. Since then, he has found dinosaur fossils in four Alaska national parks, including Denali National Park and Preserve, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve and Yukon-Charlie Rivers National Preserve. He is the author of over 100 papers and recently published the book, Alaska Dinosaurs: An Ancient Arctic World.

Dr. Fiorillo has been the Curator of Earth Sciences since 1995 and is a research affiliate for the University of Alaska Fairbanks. While he has collected fossils throughout North America and parts of Asia, he has primarily worked in western Texas and Alaska. His pursuits have resulted in numerous discoveries including a new species of a tyrannosaur. His work on ancient terrestrial ecosystems has taken him into over a dozen units of the National Park Service and won him national recognition in 2007, receiving the National Park Service, Alaska Region Natural Resource Research Award.

There is no charge to attend. Beer, wine and spirits will be available for purchase.

Please RSVP to events@commonwealthnorth.org, or dial (907) 566-2396

Thank you to The Petroleum Club of Anchorage for sponsoring this event!

July 25, 2019

July 26th: Fiscal Policy Study Group

Topics: Events Fiscal

Fiscal Policy Study Group

July 26th

8am-9:30am

Alaska Housing Finance Corporation

4300 Boniface Parkway

(Google Map)

On Friday morning, we will have briefings from Bryan Butcher, CEO/Executive Director at AHFC, Michael Strand, CFO at AHFC, and Tom Boutin, CEO at AIDEA, to discuss how they issue and manage debt and their process for evaluating and advancing projects in Alaska.

This program is a continuation of our series to understand the State of Alaska’s debt management practices and to identify potential public policy recommendations.

AHFC’s PowerPoint presentation.

July 22, 2019

July 26th: Energy Action Coalition

Topics: Energy Events

Energy Action Coalition

Alaska USA Federal Credit Union

500 W 36th Avenue

Room 201

noon-1pm

(Google Map)

Pat Galvin, Chief Commercial Officer and General Counsel with Great Bear Petroleum, will give us an update on Great Bear’s current projects including Alkaid, its new discovery on the North Slope, and the other exploration targets.

July 22, 2019

July 24th: Food Security Study Group

Topics: Events Food Security

Food Security Study Group

Alaska Village Initiatives

Wednesday, July 24th

8am-9am

(Google Map)

We will continue our discussion of Health Impact Assessments as a potential tool for understating how public policies can impact food security. We will be joined by Sarah Yoder, Public Health Specialist and Deputy Environmental Public Health Program Manager at the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services. She will discuss the department’s Health Impact Assessment program and examples of its use in Alaska and other states.

Click here to see the department’s webpage on HIAs and links to resources such as their HIA Tool Kit.

July 10, 2019

Energy and Natural Resource Policy Update with U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski

Topics: Energy Events

Date:

July 19, 2019

Time:

noon-1pm

Location:

The Dena’ina Center 600 W 7th Ave

Energy and Natural Resource Policy Update
with U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski

Friday, July 19th

The Dena’ina Center
600 W 7th Ave

Noon-1:00pm
(doors open at 11:45am)

Video of this event is now available online.

CWN is pleased to welcome U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski for an update on congressional energy and natural resource policies affecting Alaska.

Senator Murkowski is the Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee, where she is the Chairman of the Interior and Environment Subcommittee. Senator Murkowski is a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee – the first Alaskan to serve on that panel – and is also a senior member of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

Commonwealth North was co-founded by former Governors Walter J. Hickel and William A. Egan in 1979 to lead Alaskans to adopt enlightened policies that enhance Alaskans’ quality of life and improve the State’s ability to effectively manage its resources. Our mission is to educate our members and other Alaskans on the significant public policy issues affecting our state and to identify effective solutions. Commonwealth North is a non-partisan educational non-profit organization.

Thank you to Lynden for sponsoring this program!

Table sponsorships available

Contact the CWN office at (907) 258-9524 for details.

Individual Tickets

CWN Members $30, Non-Members $40

July 8, 2019

July 10th: Food Security Study Group

Topics: Events Food Security

CWN Food Security Study Group

Health Impact Assessments and Food Security

Wednesday, July 10th

Alaska Village Initiatives

1577 C St

Suite 304

8am-9am

On Wednesday, Food Security Study Group Co-chair Ed Fogels will give a briefing on Health Impact Assessments and the role they could play in developing Food Security policies in Alaska. Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is a combination of procedures, methods and tools by which a policy, program, or project may be judged as to its potential effects on the health of a population.

The State of Alaska has developed a HIA program and toolkit within the Department of Health and Social Services. Its primary purpose is to ensure that large-scale resource development projects are designed to maximize the positive health benefits and to minimize the negative health impacts to all Alaskans, however, the HIA program can also be used to evaluate the health impacts of policy initiatives.

Ed Fogels co-authored an article in the International Journal of Circumpolar Health in 2013, The State of Alaska’s early experience with institutionalization of health impact assessment.

Ed is a natural resource consultant and former deputy commissioner at the Alaska Department of Natural Resources.

June 27, 2019

July 12th: Alaska Debt Study Group

Topics: Events Fiscal

Deven Mitchell, State Debt Manager

Understanding the Municipal Bond Bank

Friday, July 12th

8:00am-9:00am

First National Bank Alaska, Operations Center

1751 Gambell St

Deven Mitchell, State Debt Manager and Executive Director of the Alaska Municipal Bond Bank Authority, will give us a briefing on the Bond Bank and it’s role in funding capital improvement projects across the state.

Deven’s PowerPoint presenatation can be downloaded here.

(Google Map)