Photojournalist Erik Hill, who retired in 2017 after a 33-year career with the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Dispatch, will share images and discuss the field of photojournalism. Before arriving in Anchorage in 1984, he worked at The Kansas City Star as well as in Jacksonville, Florida, and Charleston, West Virginia. Erik is originally from Oregon, and earned degrees at Stanford University and Ohio University.

Memorable assignments for Erik include the Exxon Valdez oil spill, several Iditarod races, a drive up the Dalton Highway when it opened to the public, and a trip down the Yukon River by barge. Daily work was typically less exotic, but Erik’s personal goal was to make every story subject feel valued.

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Photo of Erik Hill

A wide variety of options now exist between traditional publishing and self-publishing books. Kaylene Johnson-Sullivan has been published by traditional publishers and a university press. She has also been commissioned to write books for others. In the process, she formed a small, specialty publishing company, Ember Press, which has published eight books through grants from the Kenai Mountains-Turnagain Arm National Heritage Area.

Johnson-Sullivan’s presentation will discuss hybrid publishing and how this model of bookmaking can work in the creation of exceptional books.

For more information about Ember Press, visit www.emberpressbooks.com. For more information about Kaylene, visit www.kaylene.us.

Kaylene Johnson-Sullivan

The world is moving beyond oil. By looking back at where Alaska’s economy has come since the pipeline boom started; noting new industries and growth within Alaska’s core industries, Kate Troll makes the case that Alaskans need not fear this shift in global energy policy. She also examines the ongoing clean energy economy and discusses how Alaska can benefit by joining in.
Kate Troll is an op-ed columnist, author, and speaker on conservation and climate issues. She moved to Alaska in 1977, seeking a career in natural resource management. Kate has worked for 22 years in coastal management, fisheries and climate/energy policy.

As Executive Director of the Alaska Conservation Voters, Kate helped draft the creation of the Alaska Renewable Energy Fund and lobbied for the Sustainable Energy Act, a roadmap to generate 50% of Alaska’s electrical energy from renewable sources by 2025. She served as Executive Director for United Fishermen of Alaska and also worked as a fisheries development specialist and policy analyst for the State of Alaska. Internationally, Kate was Regional Fisheries Director for the Marine Stewardship Council, a global eco-label program. She was elected to public office twice, serving on the Juneau-Douglas Borough and Ketchikan Borough Assembly. Kate was appointed by Governor Palin to serve on the Alaska Climate Mitigation Advisory Board, and was the only Alaskan invited to participate in Governor Schwarzenegger’s 2008 Global Climate Summit. She recently served on the Board of Directors for Renewable Energy Alaska Project.

From 2010-2016, she was a regular columnist for the Juneau Empire and then moved on to the Alaska Dispatch News (now the Anchorage Daily News) for two years. She remains a contributing columnist for both papers.

Kate Troll

Lisa Maloney is the author of three guidebooks: Day Hiking Southcentral Alaska, 50 Hikes Around Anchorage, and Moon Alaska. She will describe how the two great passions of her life—hiking and Irish dance—enabled her to emerge from a painfully shy person and taught her to embrace the vulnerable place where true communication happens.

A resident of Alaska for more than 25 years, Lisa is a former outdoors columnist for The Anchorage Press, has covered a nationwide hiking and backpacking beat for a travel website, and served as senior editor at Alaska magazine. She contributes outdoors and lifestyle articles to several publications.

Lori Townsend is the News Director for Alaska Public Media. In addition to herding the newsroom cats, she also offers edits and advice to reporters in public broadcasting newsrooms across the state and hosts weekly, statewide public affairs programs. She has been a reporter for nearly 25 years and has lived in Alaska for 20 of them. Her reporting work has taken her to communities across the Lower 48, Canada and Alaska.

She is the recipient of numerous journalism awards and has had fellowships at the Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting and The Berkeley Center for Digital Media, as well as a short intensive at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Lori also has written two novels—American Home Wrecker and Ghost Ship—and is anticipating publication of her third mystery this fall.

Lori Townsend

Cameron was given the honor to continue the popular Tom Clancy line of book thrillers. Tom Clancy Oath of Office made the New York Times bestseller list in 2018, and Tom Clancy Code of Honor is anticipated in November.

Cameron is a master thriller writer. Details in his books stem from nearly three decades in law enforcement, serving as a policeman, SWAT officer, detective, and U.S. Marshal. His newly published book is Open Carry, a series debut of his new Arliss Cutter Novels, set in the Alaska wilderness. Arliss Cutter, like Cameron himself, is a professional tracker whose unique skills provide survival capabilities and psychological insights that offer advantages superior to those acquired in traditional law enforcement backgrounds.

Cameron will discuss the use of untouched wilderness in creating spooky settings. Characteristics of the Alaska wilderness that lend themselves to thriller novels are the isolation, the unforgiving terrain, the potentially deadly animals lurking in wait, and the possibility of vanishing without a trace.

Marc Cameron (photo by Vicky Otte)

Author Melissa Saulnier will describe how she is raising funds for and building awareness of community needs. Melissa is writing a mystery trilogy, Fallen Race, about a young woman’s introduction to dangerous secrets when she inherits her grandmother’s estate. The stories involve history of the Vatican’s Observatories, antediluvian relics, science, and ancient mysteries.

Formerly working as a music publisher, Melissa edited a songwriter’s magazine and wrote 27 songs and three books helping songwriters with copyright, royalties, and music publishing. She became Executive Assistant at Alzheimer’s Resource of Alaska in 2016 and found that she could contribute to the agency’s mission through her writing. In her presentation she will discuss her exploration of two fundamental questions: How can the literary and arts communities become a more significant part of the greater community? How can they collaborate with local organizations in a way that brings attention to real needs?

As the Public Relations Coordinator for Anchorage Animal Care and Control (AACC), Laura Atwood engages with the Anchorage community every day, whether through social media, shelter tours, school presentations or press interviews. Since starting at AACC in 2014, her goal has been to change the perception of Anchorage’s open-admission animal shelter from “the pound” to a safe haven where temporarily homeless animals are cared for by compassionate staff and volunteers while maintaining public safety as a top priority. She draws on her professional experience in marketing and forming community partnerships to achieve this goal.

When not working, Laura spends time with her adopted pack, Whisper, an Alaskan husky that accompanies her on school visits and shelter tours; Piper, a Rottweiler that competes in canine nose work and is training for agility competition; and an orange tabby cat named Petunia that knows a few tricks. Laura also enjoys photography and gardening, and volunteers for Rottweiler Rescue Los Angeles as its social media manager.

Laura requests that luncheon attendees write down and bring with them three to five words or phrases that come to mind when you think of a municipal animal shelter.

Laura Atwood