Introducing LA24

Dimitrios Alexiadis
Voter Engagement Specialist, Alaska Center

Dimitrios Alexiadis is a 2018 graduate of UAA where he earned a bachelor's degree in Economics with personal interests in political science, statistical analysis, and complex systems.

Dimitrios moved to Alaska from Texas at the age of five with his single mother who worked as a nurse in Bethel. As a child, his mother made sure he had relationships and respected the elders in rural Alaska, where he traveled to many villages and had experiences that he might not have elsewhere including volunteering for the Kuskokwim 300 dog sled race, and the historic Cama-i Dance Festival - community events that bring people together for competition, cultural sustainability, revitalization and downright celebration!

After graduating from high school, Dimitrios began work with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game where he spent five summers on a fish weir in Goodnews Bay. Data collection and analysis became a cornerstone of his character, and drove him to finish his degree. Dimitrios’ interests include spending time outdoors, analytics, and eating delicious foods. He brings curiosity and charisma to every dialogue and is outspoken in his convictions. As a rural Alaskan by transplant, he has cherished living in, traveling to, and working in remote areas of the State.

Dimitrios’ current personal and professional drive is towards increasing the opportunities of previously incarcerated citizens. He believes he can utilize not only his knowledge and skills obtained through academics to help this marginalized group, but also provide awareness and perspective to Leadership Anchorage and the community at large.

Shaynne Beatty
Development Director, Alaska Native Heritage Center

Shyanne Beatty is Hän Hwëch’in Athabascan from Eagle, Alaska and Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in from Moosehide, Yukon Territory in Canada. She grew up in a subsistence lifestyle in Eagle, Alaska where the Yukon River meets the Alaska/Canadian border.

Shyanne currently is the Development Director of the Alaska Native Heritage Center and enjoys fulfilling the mission to preserve and strengthen the traditions, languages, and art of Alaska’s Native People through statewide collaboration, celebration, and education.

Taylor Donovan
Director of Operations, Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness

Taylor (she/her) was born and raised in Anchorage, with family roots in Southeast Alaska. After moving to Oregon to pursue a bachelors’ degrees in Economics and Philosophy, she returned to Alaska in 2018 and began a career with an Anchorage non-profit focused on solving homelessness.

Taylor believes a strong community creates healthy, happy individuals and that we should all work towards being good relatives to one another. In her free time she enjoys all the amazing outdoor opportunities Alaska has to offer, including backpacking, skiing and kayaking.

Mark “Jeff” Earle
Chief of Police, University of Alaska

Mark “Jeff” Earle has over 21 years’ experience as a seasoned law enforcement professional with a proven history of progressively responsible leadership at the executive level, including management of all police divisions, investigations, security, access control, traffic, communications services for students, foreign guests, dignitaries, and the public across campuses. He is a Texas master peace officer and a state certified special investigator in sexual assault and family violence. Jeff received his advanced certification from the Alaska Police Standards Council and is fully versed and compliant with the Clery Act and particularly knowledgeable in training leadership to remain compliant. He has managed ongoing Clery Act compliance along with Campus-Community Emergency Response Team (C-CERT) University-wide training, providing planning and training assistance to community departments, organizations, and areas critical to effective preparedness, training +2000 people over 8 years.

Jeff holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science from St. Edward's University, Austin Texas and is working on his master's degree in Campus Public Safety Administration from New England College. He is a graduate from the Bill Blackwood Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas, Leadership Command College at Sam Houston State University. He is a certified Clery Compliance Officer by the National Association of Clery Compliance Officers and Professionals (NACCOP). He is a certified Title IX investigator by D. Stafford and Associates. He is also a member of Alaska Police Officer Association, Alaska Chief of Police Association, Texas Association of College and University Police Administrators (TACUPA), Texas Municipal Peace Officers Association, Texas District and County Attorneys Association, and National Association of Campus Safety Administrators.

Eyvette Flynn
Principal/CEO, Legna Consulting Group, LLC

Eyvette Flynn has been a family caregiver since 2010. In 2017, Eyvette founded Legna Consulting Group, LLC, to provide consulting services to Alaskan businesses, universities, non-profit and government clients using her 35+ years of experience in strategic planning, budget and policy analysis, project management and non-profit fund development.

After growing up in Anchorage and graduating from Dimond High School, Eyvette spent 25 years away from Alaska studying economics and law and establishing her career in federal economic regulation and policy areas of health care, international agricultural trade, and telecommunications. In 2005, Eyvette returned to Anchorage to be closer to her family and to phase her work life into caring for her parents and elderly aunt. On any given day, you can find Eyvette sharing a car picnic with her mom at one of Anchorage’s many parks, something they do to break up the strain of multiple doctor visits. Eyvette has mastered a caregiver’s self-care, with respites, massage therapy, and indulging her cerebral sense of humor watching irreverent and cutting edge comedies, along with having a network of close, supportive friends. As Eyvette now prepares for life after family caregiving, she embraces the opportunity to be part of LA24 to help continue her work in public service and to focus on policy areas that are of interest to her as she re-enters her career firmly rooted in Anchorage.

Elana Habib
Opiod Misuse and Addiction Prevention Specialist, State of Alaska DHSS Office of Substance Misuse and Addiction Prevention

Elana Habib grew up in a family that valued volunteerism, hard work, serving those who are most vulnerable from stigma, and adventure. Growing up in a diverse Chicagoland community but also in a small conservative Indiana town gave her the additional innate value of diversity. All of these values have fostered her career and education success.

Through AmeriCorp, Elana came to Alaska in 200, to work for Alaskan AIDS Assistance Association (Four As). It was here she discovered a passion for serving people who use substances through harm reduction. Since this experience, she has worked as a harm reduction consultant and intern in Eastern Europe, HIV tester in Anchorage correctional facilities, and currently serves as the Opioid Misuse and Addiction Prevention Specialist for the DHSS Office of Substance Misuse and Addiction Prevention. Working in a tribally operated and owned organization as well as living in three countries and traveling to 36 countries have given Elana a strong sense of the importance of relationship-building and seeing the world from multiple lenses. With this understanding, she also currently serves on the Alaska Sudan Medical Project Board. Elana received her bachelor's degree from Indiana University in “International Health Administration with a focus on HIV in Africa”; and her master's degree in Public Health from University of Michigan in Health Behavior & Health Education.

Kamueku Kakizaki
Architect, MCG Architects

Kamu Kakizaki is a design advocate and future-thinker born in Japan and raised in Anchorage. By day (and nights), he’s an architect with MCG Explore Design. Outside the office, he co-organizes Anchorage PechaKucha Nights and has filled various board roles at Alaska Design Forum, AIA Alaska, and the ACLU of Alaska.

Community impact and well-being guide Kamu's thinking about how to develop and design the built environment that is responsive to people, technology, business, climate, and future generations.

Kristen Mitchell-Box DrPH, MSPH
Senior Program Manager, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, Alaska Native Epideminology Center

Kristen Mitchell-Box has been an Alaska resident since 2011. After receiving her Doctorate in Public Health with a concentration in Community-Based and Translational Research from the University of Hawai‘i, she first worked as a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Alaska at Anchorage, conducting research and providing evaluation services related to suicide prevention programs.

Kristen moved to the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC), Alaska Native Epidemiology Center (ANEC) in 2005 to serve as a Program Evaluator contributing to CDC-sponsored statewide and national evaluation efforts. Since 2019, Kristen has served as a Senior Program Manager at the ANEC for the Network Coordinating Center for the Tribal Epidemiology Center's Public Health Infrastructure Program. She has extensive work experience as a program evaluator and community-based researcher in Hawai‘i and Alaska. Kristen is originally from Atlanta, Georgia and made her way to Anchorage by way of Norfolk, VA, New Orleans, LA, San Francisco, CA, and Honolulu, HI. Her 7 and 12-year old girls keep her very busy and she loves cooking, yoga, reading, strength-based workouts, and running.

Colin Roshak
Musician and Writer

Colin Roshak is a clarinetist, music educator, and writer. As a performing artist, Colin has toured internationally to Poland, Spain, Ireland and the Netherlands, and performed in Carnegie Hall, the New World Center, and five hundred feet underground in a salt mine. After finishing his undergraduate studies at Oberlin College in 2018, Colin moved to Anchorage via Sitka, where he serves on the faculty and staff of the Sitka Fine Arts Camp.

Colin’s work has been published in Cleveland Classical, the Anchorage Daily News, and the Anchorage Press, amongst others. In 2018, Colin founded the Padanaram Chamber Music Festival and now serves as the festival’s Executive Director. Colin also serves as the clarinet coach with the Alaska Youth Orchestras, hosts a podcast, has cooked professionally, dreams of sunny ski days, and was recently selected as a Soundscape Ecology intern with the Anchorage Museum. Colin strongly recommends Maggie Nelson’s “The Argonauts,” and encourages everyone to drink more water.

Lindsay Walker Hobson
Communications Manager, ENSTAR Natural Gas Company

Lindsay Walker Hobson was raised in Anchorage and then graduated from Southern Oregon University and Gonzaga University School of Law before returning to Alaska in 2010. Lindsay is currently the Communications Manager at ENSTAR Natural Gas where she has worked for six years. While in law school, Lindsay worked at World Relief Legal Aid Clinic where she focused on helping women gain legal status in the U.S. through the Violence Against Women Act. In 2018 and 2019, Lindsay traveled to Dilley, Texas to provide pro bono legal services to detained women and children at the U.S./Mexico Border.

Lindsay enjoys all the outdoor recreation that Alaska has to offer. She and her husband Greg live in Anchorage with their two kids, Meredith (12) and Porter (10). They spend their summers camping and fishing around Alaska and their winters downhill and cross-country skiing.

Ximena Williams-Olivera
ANMC Retail Manager, NANA Management Services - NMS

Ximena Williams-Olivera is a Uruguayan American by way of the Midwest. Seeking adventure and new experiences, she began her Alaskan journey in 2014 and hasn’t looked back; she is here to stay, as she knows she has found a home in Anchorage’s vibrant community and outdoor-focused culture. As a detail-oriented person with a deep interest in humanitarianism, Ximena brings her professional experiences in event planning and program management to the Leadership Anchorage Program. She looks forward to growing her professional skills through this program, especially through outlets that have a measurable positive impact on her community.

In addition to her day job, Ximena loves creative outlets for writing, reading, gardening in her new yard, listening to music, and rock climbing. She is a self-admitted people (and animal!) person, and she consistently seeks out opportunities to volunteer. Currently, she volunteers with Arctic Entries, a local storytelling organization, is part of a writing club, and you might spot her rock climbing off the Seward Highway whenever she can get the chance. Ximena is thrilled to be a part of LA24 as she continues to seek out opportunities to be involved in and give back to the community she loves and calls home.

Claire Shaw
Deputy Finance Director, Alyse Galvin for Congress

Claire Shaw recently returned home to Anchorage following her graduation from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. The summer before Tuck, Claire helped raise a record-breaking $2.1 million dollars as the Deputy Finance Director for Alyse Galvin’s congressional campaign. For nearly five years prior, Claire managed strategic business development partnerships from San Francisco and Singapore for Twilio, a Bay Area-based software company. Claire is passionate about how the public and private sectors can unite to make a positive impact on local communities.

As a 2019-2020 Venture Capital Fellow at Tuck, Claire partnered with the Center on Rural Innovation to bring equitable economic opportunities to overlooked parts of the country. She spent her second favorite college summer interning at USA Swimming in Colorado Springs ten years ago, an incredible experience topped only by the six weeks she spent translating for the USA swimming team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Kevin Worrell
Director of Safety, Chugach Government Solutions (A Chugach Company)

Kevin Worrell is a lifelong Alaskan who was raised between the farm fields and the family deli in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley. His early devotion to music carried him to study at the Interlochen Arts Academy and to New York where he earned a BFA in Jazz Studies from the New School University. Through music-fueled travel, he found a reverence for the culture of communities, especially as expressed through food, music and language.

At this intersection of creativity and community Kevin launched Parlor In The Round, a dinner theater musical improv series. His artistic lens and care for people has also led to an innovative approach to his role as Director of Safety for Chugach Government Solutions. In Anchorage, Kevin composes and performs with the Super Saturated Sugar Strings and gets out into the wilderness with his family come rain or come shine.

Justin Todd Zagorski
Youth Program Manager, Identity Alaska

Justin Zagorski (they/he) is an activist, educator, healer, and social justice participant. They have been facilitating social justice learning experiences for nearly a decade, including countless group dialogues, immersive events, and conference presentations throughout the country. Justin first traveled to Alaska for college in 2008, before transitioning for further schooling in the pacific northwest. It was there, in Washington and California, where Justin found their voice in social justice movements.

Since returning to Alaska in 2017, Justin has implemented city-wide anti-racism efforts as the Social Justice Program Manager at YWCA Alaska, facilitates a plethora of social justice workshops as a consultant, and currently advances the LGBTQ community in their role with Identity Alaska. A month ago, Justin completed a 2-year long Running Against Racism project by running a 100 mile ultramarathon in 37 hours. The project led to the creation of an annual scholarship for students who are confronting racism in the outdoor recreation industry. Justin is a gender non-conforming white person in a society plagued by racism, they often subtly challenge the status quo, and is a co-parent to an adorable corgi husky named Mila.