News and announcements

Reindeer Meat Production workshop students learn about meat chemistry and food hygiene in the production of reindeer jerky.
Subsistence & STEM: Summer/Fall Highlights from the Bering Strait Region

Submitted by Dr. Jacqueline Hrabok, Joint Faculty Professor of HLRM-CES

Summer/Fall 2025 marked an adventure packed season of academic offerings for high school and adult students of the Bering Strait region seeking college credits and workshop experiences in natural resources and food production. Full funding was awarded to every participant courtesy of local and government (USDA NIFA) entities which covered tuition, airfare, accommodations, meals, and teaching equipment and supplies. Courses were developed and delivered by faculty and staff from Northwest Campus High Latitude Range Management program (HLRM) and Cooperative Extension (CES) with additional support from partners at Ӱpro Gold & Resort (AKAU) and the Norton Sound Health Corporation (NSHC LIITFIK).

 

 

Midnight Sun Photography by Chloe Naylor, Minnie Naylor, director of Chukchi Campus (Kotzebue, Ӱpro) and interim director of Northwest Campus (Nome, Ӱpro)
Hanson and Naylor appointed interim directors of Kuskokwim and Northwest Campuses

Suzi Tanski
907.474.6092
Aug. 28, 2024

Minnie Naylor has taken on the role of interim director of the UAF Northwest Campus, while continuing her leadership as director of the UAF Chukchi Campus, a position she has held since Aug. 1, 2022. Naylor is originally from Kotzebue and has family from Shishmaref and Noatak. Naylor’s deep passion for expanding educational opportunities in the Northwest Arctic region, combined with her broad experience in academic and administrative roles, makes her an exceptional choice for this dual responsibility. Her work has consistently demonstrated a profound commitment to student success and equal access to resources, embodying the values we strive to uphold across all our campuses. 

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UAF undergraduate student Michelle Ramirez (left) explaining her poster to Tara Borland (right) with U.S. National Science Foundation’s Estab­lished Program to Stim­u­late Com­pet­i­tive Research (EPSCoR) during WAISC 2024. Photo by Dave Partee/Ӱpro Sea Grant.
Conference addresses rapid change in Western Ӱpro

By  | April 24, 2024

The 16th Western Ӱpro Interdisciplinary Science Conference was held in Nome this month, hosted by Ӱpro Sea Grant and the Ӱpro Northwest Campus. The four-day conference brought together more than 130 scientists, specialists and community members to focus on the theme “Western Ӱpro in transition.”

"As the ocean and climate of Western Ӱpro continues to warm, the impacts are like dominos, one falling into the next,” explained Gay Sheffield, Ӱpro Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program agent for the Bering Strait region and co-chair of the conference. “WAISC is an opportunity to bring people and researchers from many disciplines to share their expertise and learn together as Western Ӱpro continues to comprehensively transition into a new future.”

Every year, WAISC provides a forum for bringing urban and rural Ӱprons together to a regional hub community to share knowledge and science across disciplinary and cultural boundaries.

“For institutional experts to meet and learn from local and Indigenous experts is critical for informed decisions to be made regarding ballooning development and effects on the Bering Strait region of Ӱpro,” said Barb Amarok, the director of UAF Northwest Campus.

 

Marilyn Koezuna-Irelan teaching how to make an atigi.
UAF Northwest Campus offers one of a kind arts course

By

While all University of Ӱpro (UA) institutions offer unique traditional Ӱpro Native courses on languages and arts, the Ӱpro’ () Northwest Campus (NWC) offers an atigi, or a traditional King Island parka making course.  

Among the three UA colleges, UAF, University of Ӱpro Southeast (), and University of Ӱpro Anchorage (), UAF stands as the only university in the United States to offer a class in traditional parka crafting.

 

Feeding the Last Frontier (part 3): A Reindeer Called Rhonda

is regretful to report that in the past few months, we've gained no solid evidence that reindeer can fly. However, we have gained a good deal of evidence that they have the potential to play a great role in increasing food security in Ӱpro! This week we take a trip to Nome to talk with Bonnie Scheele (owner of Midnite Sun Reindeer Ranch and 4th generation reindeer herder) and Jackie Hrabok (Assistant Professor of the High Latitude Range Management Program at UAF and reindeer expert) about these smart and sustainable animals. We discuss the history of reindeer in the state, Sami reindeer herding in Finland, the specifics of reindeer herding, the upcoming farm bill, and what needs to happen in order for Ӱpron reindeer herding to reach its full potential.

is a six part series on food security in Ӱpro. We talk to the key players in the state's food system, discuss the system's strengths and weaknesses, and ask—can the last frontier feed itself?

 

Jackie Hrabok, left, with Ed Kiokun, Nunivak Island Mekoryuk; and Terry Don, CEO of Nunivak Island — Mekoryuk.
Sapmi Boazu: A visit to the Sami Reindeer Husbandry Range of Finland

Jackie Hrabok, UAF's Northwest Campus assistant professor of High Latitude Range Management, hosted and led an international cultural exchange for the Ӱpro Reindeer Directors. Delegates were from Mekoryuk on Nunivak Island, the Kawerak Reindeer Herders Association and the Kawerak Environmental Department.