A third-generation Alaskan, David was born in Fairbanks before statehood. His family moved to Anchorage in 1963 just prior to the Great Alaska Earthquake. David graduated from the University of Alaska Anchorage with a degree in Journalism and Public Communications in 1989. That same year, he created Alaska Pet-ography as a home-based business. Realizing that […]

Kaylene Johnson is a professional writer and long-time Alaskan who lives in Eagle River, Alaska. Her books include A Tender Distance: Adventures Raising My Sons in Alaska; Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned the Political Establishment Upside Down, Portrait of the Alaska Railroad and Trails Across Time: History of an Alaska Mountain Corridor. Her award-winning […]

Born in Berlin, Germany, Victor Fischer was a delegate to the Alaska Constitutional Convention, served in the territorial House of Representatives and the Alaska State Senate, and worked in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. A member of the faculty of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks and Alaska, he was director for […]

Don Rearden is the author of the award winning novel The Raven’s Gift and a produced screenwriter. His films have aired on Showtime, and TMC. He is the board president of 49 Writers and an Associate Professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Visit his website.

Shirley Mae Springer Staten, international keynoter, singer and workshop facilitator, moves people forward beyond their limiting ideas. A born storyteller and dynamic a capella vocalist, she brings an unrivaled blend of vision, passion and sheer virtuosity to her work. From the age of five, Shirley Mae picked cotton in the fields of Georgia. Her transformation […]