RDC: 3-26-2026 Breakfast Forum: UAA on Building Alaska's Talent Pipeline

Please join me in welcoming Chancellor Seamers to the stage. She will begin by introducing her team. After the presentation, time permitting, and there will be time, we will open the floor for questions.

Thank you for those opening remarks and that introduction. As we noted by way of passing the mic, I think we heard around the room that this university system is really, I think as Scott said, a personal story for all of us. We connect to it in so many ways. Graduates, family members attending, partnerships, apprenticeships, the ways that we make higher education important to every individual in this state. So I'm gonna start with passing the mic down the line and have each of our team members here today introduce themselves.

You've heard about me and I'll come back to my introduction and I'll pass to Provost Denise Rondeau.

Well, hello everybody. I think Scott did a great job of introducing me and explaining my background, so I'll pass it on down to Ryan.

Oh wow, okay, I got two mics here. Hi, Ryan Buckholt. I'm the Vice Chancellor for Administrative Services. I was born and raised in Anchorage and also a proud UAA alum. Good morning, Tom Green.

I'm the Interim Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs. I am up here for many months that I've been serving the university, and I live in Herndon, Virginia. If you've had the displeasure of flying through Dulles Airport, just wave, I'm your neighbor down there. Nice to be here this morning. I'm Aaron Dotson.

I'm the Vice Chancellor for Research. I also hold a faculty position in civil engineering. My background is environmental engineering, primarily in water and wastewater treatment and had previously worked as an engineering consultant. Hi, good morning everyone. I'm Tanya Pont, Vice Chancellor for University Advancement, also wearing the hat currently as the acting athletic director, so it's a busy time at UA.

I'm also the proud mom of 4, and 2 of them currently enrolled at the university.

Evan Steinberg, Strategic Engagement and Government Relations Officer for the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Great, thank you all. And we want today to be as interactive as you want it to be. So I have some prepared remarks that I'm going to share about the university, as does Provost Runge, but our whole team is up here today to answer questions and to provide information that might be helpful in the partnership, many partnerships that we have.

Recently, I was moved from interim to permanent chancellor. And that's a, that's a move of which I'm incredibly excited. I actually began with the institution about 10 months ago on the Anchorage campus. As noted, I have a long history with UAA. I attended college here in Anchorage and got my master's here, living in the city, working and engaging for about 5 years.

My discipline, I needed to go out of state to pursue a PhD. So I headed out of state to the lower 48 in that particular discipline. But I like to tell the story when I got to my first institution of higher education, I was working with my mentor and advisor at the time, and here I just started a new job, and they asked, "So what are your goals?" And I said, "Well, actually I'd love to get back to Alaska and engage with higher education there." So as I was pursuing my PhD, I was teaching in the area of English, but always with the heart to come back here. I landed on the Kenai Peninsula, uh, where maybe this story is true for many of you, I thought I might stay 3 to 5 years, maybe make a change up, and 20 years later I find myself having filled many roles at that institution, going from faculty to a department chair to an assistant director and then into the director role. The move then to Anchorage was easy because I've been a part of UAA and its reach across all of Southcentral Alaska.

We often like to say about Alaska, it's a really big small community, right? And as we had the stories around the table this morning, I think that becomes evident in how we engage with the university. And just the introductions this morning, stories we tell— I got to talk to Keith, who said he was back at UA A or in the 1970s, you know. We connect in so many ways and it really does feel like a big family. So moving into the permanent role, what I'm most excited about and something I want to tell you about this morning is our momentum.

We have been under the incredible leadership of President Pat Pitney and our Board of Regents. And I celebrate too the blue and the gold back there. And I would like to tell you that UAS, UAA, and UAF are working together collaboratively to increase higher education opportunities across our state, and we have that momentum together. Underneath the board's direction, we're working on recruitment, retention, and graduation efforts, and we're infusing those efforts with dollars, with people power, and with real initiative. UAA in particular, though, is recognizing some of the benefits of that.

I want to kick off by celebrating that unlike trends across the lower 48 right now, we are ticking up in enrollment. This fall, we celebrated 5% up in our student headcount, and this spring, we're still at about 2% up. We're also seeing those students take more credit hours. This fall, between 7 and 8% up in credit hours, and this spring, about 6%. We like to think that we're offering opportunities that students can engage in that meet their needs.

One of the key points for momentum that I'm excited about for UAA is embracing our dual mission. Provost Runge is going to talk a little bit about that in her talking points as well. But I want to start with the idea of what is a dual mission institution. It's an institution that has open access at its core and that brings learners into all levels of engagement with higher ed. Most of you know if you've tracked people attending the university, you can come in and get an occupational endorsement certificate that you might be able to complete in 6 months to a year.

You might also choose to go on and get a 2-year degree or an associate's. I'm gonna come back to those actually, Evan, so. Or you can go on and get a master's or a PhD right there at UAA. I'm asking around the room, how many of you knew exactly what you wanted to do when you came into the university setting, if that was the pathway? Anyone here?

Exactly, there are a few of us, right?

But for a large percentage of UAA learners, they might come in and say, I'm going to start with this certificate. 'Cause this is what I know I want. And then through conversations, expanding those horizons and opportunities, may come out on the other side with a PhD. Also going back to Story, um, that's how I navigated my way through my university experience as well. I had a mentor.

I was going to teach high school. I still have a passion for students and that. But my first day in his office, he said, Do you want to pursue the subject, and would you ever consider teaching at the college level? I hadn't even thought about teaching at the college level, but he said, well, you're going to have to sit in the chair a while because you're going to have to get the education it takes to teach at the college level, but then walked me through that. Those are the types of expansive conversations that we want at UAA when students come in and we say, where are you going, how can we meet you, and where can we assist to take you to your end goals.

The same is true for our community partners. So in a dual mission institution, they're also highly community engaged. It's why you see all these faces in the community talking to you about what do you need and how can you help, how can we help. Those are the two primary questions we want to ask. If we're meeting Alaska's workforce needs, how can we get there together?

Our theme for this year going into the academic year on our campus was Together Into Tomorrow. Why? Because looking into the future looked a little—. Looking way into the future at that particular moment, me in an interim role navigating national context as well, we thought we can look solidly at tomorrow. And now as a team at UAA, we are talking about who do we want to be 10 years from now?

20 Years from now, and how do we want to be serving the state? I think the primary thing I'd say about that is that we want to be the state's workforce provider. We want to push into all the ways all of our disciplines meet critical workforce needs. Unless you think that means like, you know, primarily some of, you know, trade-focused things like that— no, we're offering all the way up through like clinical PhDs in psychology. Because mental health is a critical workforce need for our state.

So it ranges the gamut.

I'm gonna skip on up and talk a moment. I'm gonna— can I go to the— Evan, I know I jumped you around on the slides, so we'll go to the next one as well.

In terms of our dual mission, as we said, and our focus on the presentation today, building Alaska's talent pipeline, and I hope you're seeing the theme through that. How do we do that? One student at a time. Our mission centers around transforming lives. I recently went down, UAA was reaffirmed in accreditation.

I met with the Northwest Commission and had the privilege of presenting to the university. We'd gone through our self-study, they'd come up and visited our campuses, multiple campuses, 'cause they'd gone to the peninsula as well. And they said, one thing we can tell by being on all your campuses is that you put students first. That's one of our critical goals for UAA 2027, and that has to do with this notion of meeting the pipeline, meeting students where they're at and then walking them through it. And we're here today because partnerships are critical to where we go and how we serve that need in meeting workforce needs.

Next slide. I mentioned that we're a team and I had everyone introduce themselves. The next slide as well, we introduced down the table. I wanted to note we have campuses throughout central Alaska, south central Alaska, as you know. Kenai Peninsula College, Matsu College, Prince William College in Valdez, and our Kodiak College.

And I put the directors up there because at some point in time as you're traveling through the state, you might be engaging with them as well. Next slide. And we have with us Dean Kendrick Mwok, but I wanted to put some of our deans up as well because I know you all interact with them when you're talking about workforce development, where you're going. Folks have been— I know Kendrick Mwok has been involved in some AI conversations critical to our state. You might have met Dean Doucet working on those apprenticeships, the education pathways.

And I put those slides up about our team because there's a very strong we at UAA right now. We want to engage, and it's a team of actually 2,800 leaders in every seat. That's our employee count, considering adjuncts, faculty, staff— 2,800 who are committed to the well-being of our students at this time. And that's a powerful team and a powerful place to make a difference for our state. Next slide.

All right, I've talked a little bit about the UAA mission and how we're pressing into our dual mission. I also want to say too that in that mission, we have also embraced middle college, and those terms can sometimes get interchanged because we often talk about dual enrollment. We have almost 1,500 high school students across our campus who are engaging with higher education education opportunities. They come in, they may take a few classes, um, some will graduate with as many as 30 or 60 credits by the time they graduate. It's really phenomenal.

We have students that are graduating with high school degrees and their AA degree at the same time. They're in partnership with the school districts, so important to the progress we make and how we talk about the workforce pipeline. We are focusing too on our conversion rates. That means we're looking at those high school students and if they convert into UA or UAA degrees. Our conversion to regular enrollment at UAA rose from 29.3% to almost 32%.

So we're seeing students stay and engage. That reflects a stronger pipeline. We're giving them opportunities to learn what, um, what workforce opportunities they might seek and pursue. We often talk about like a process technology degree, so I wanted to stop on that one for a moment. It's one that we're getting students interested in, and in terms of paying attention to the needs, you know what we found out?

Students were like, what is process technology, right? We needed to adjust our language a little bit, so we talked about jobs that, you know, might be on the slope you know, that, that type of work. But we also began talking about process industries in different ways because it doesn't just mean a job on the slope. It could, but it means more. And we talk to students about practical ways to engage in a degree like that one.

For instance, in that particular degree, we created flexible modalities. Students post-COVID, as you probably all know, are interested in flexibility. They might take 50% of their courses face-to-face, 50% online. So our faculty and staff have adapted their teaching to meet those students. So for the Process Tech student, they could decide to get a job on the slope and start there and still be able to pursue the pathways because of that.

And in that 2-year degree, starting salary coming out about $80,000. After 5 years, well over 120. That's a practical reality for students thinking about where they want to go and how they might want to stay and engage in the state. I wanted to give you a little snippet of some of the other degrees, but I know when Provost Runge returns that she'll be addressing some of them in more depth. For example, short degrees: bookkeeping, baking and pastry arts, Welding.

And by the way, a side note on our baking and pastry, if you haven't eaten at Lucy's when our students are showcasing their phenomenal work, it's amazing. And our bakery cart sells out in minutes. Everyone sits on their computer to put their order in as soon as things come live. We are connecting with a program that helps touch those hospitality needs. Undergraduate certificates from automotive technology, to airframe and power plant.

Our associate degrees: diagnostic medical sonography, fire and emergency services, geomatics— and we heard about that at some of the tables— bachelor's degrees like civil engineering, early childhood education, dental hygiene. Master's work from social work to the family nurse practitioner or project management. And doctoral degrees. Clinical Community Counseling, a Doctorate of Nursing Practice. I hit some of those so just so that you'd see the wide range of opportunities students can have, and that is just a snippet of offerings at UAA.

And we are reaching the state through our alumni. Evan, I think that's the next slide, or we're queuing up on some of them. I think there's alumni side. Great. 33% Of people working at the State Capitol right now, including, including legislators, are UAA alum.

That's policymakers. That's people shaping practice going forward. We have 72,000 alum around the globe making meaningful contributions to worldwide efforts. That's pretty exciting for us.

And as I mentioned before, next slide, our reach is not just here in Anchorage, it's across the state and particularly in Southcentral Alaska. I wanted to mention Prince William Sound, Matsu, Kodiak, and Kenai Peninsula. As was mentioned, I have lived in the Kenai Peninsula for 20+ years and have seen the importance of having campuses in small communities. That is a strong commitment from UAA to meet needs across the state. One of the things that Provost is helping lead is an expansion of offerings in those locations, moving from more 2-year degrees to 4-year degrees that can be completed in place.

As you can imagine, the students that come through the doors have full lives. They're working, they have families, and they have commitments. It's not always easy to transfer to another location to pursue a degree. We used to use the term like, you know, they're place-constrained. We like to say they're place-committed.

They choose to be there, they want to be there, and we want to make opportunity available to them right where they're at. And as you know, it probably— if Washington State trends on the Kenai Peninsula and Mat-Su have seen enrollment, both enrollment growth considerably over the last couple years as well as population growth. So it's an area we want to target. We are looking north to the future through workforce, community, and applied research. I've talked a lot about workforce and community.

I want to talk a moment about our applied research efforts. One focus point of UAA is thinking about how our research presses in to critical community needs. How can we address problems, challenges, innovations in a way that our research lends support to our workforce development and to our state's needs and the state's well-being?

We are trying to maximize our our impact by aligning UAA's resources with Alaska's priorities. Whether it's healthcare, education, or economic development, UAA wants to be at the table. And that's why we brought our whole team to the table today to answer questions that you might have and to think about how we partner and go forward for the well-being of all of Alaska. We are working alongside donors and partners to create world, world, real world experiences that ensures students are prepared to make an immediate and positive impact in the workforce. Community leaders in every seat.

Provost Runyon. I know, because she loves you. She is battling a bit of a cold, so, uh, let her talk. Thank you, Chancellor Chalmers. I apologize, I had a cold last week and I thought I was over it, and of course it's I'm sitting here in front of all of you, it's time to have a little resurgence.

So my apologies for that. My goal today is to share with you the incredible array of workforce programs that are offered through UAA and to talk through a little bit of some of what makes us unique. As Chancellor Seamers mentioned, we are what Carnegie classifies as a dual mission institution. Institution offering that really incredible array. You can come into UAA and do a short-term certificate in as little as one semester or one year.

You can earn one of two doctoral degrees that we offer at UAA and everything in between. And one of the most exciting parts for me, and, and the Chancellor touched on this a little bit, is the way that students are able to stack these different kinds of credentials. Because it's quite true that particularly for working students, they don't always want to come in and just be a student full-time for the traditional 4 to 6 years. Many times they sort of cycle in, complete a credential, cycle out, work for a while, cycle back, do another credential. And so it takes a lot of effort on the part of our faculty, and several of our faculty in the room, and I really want to acknowledge and applaud the way that they have so thoughtfully designed programs to accommodate the lives of our real students, not some imaginary students, our real students.

So we're going to dig into the various industries and talk a little bit about what those programs are and what we do and, and some of the ways that we already partner and some of the ways that we would would love to continue to do so. And you can see the sort of trajectory and flow of what we're going to talk about here, so we can go to the next slide now. Thank you. So let's begin with the sort of non-resource industry-specific programs, because every business has needs beyond the title of the business. Every business needs managers, HR, accountants, you know, all of those things.

You might need project managers. And so keeping in mind that whichever industry you represent, UAA also has all of those programs that are necessary, again, from the certificate all the way through the master's, to help make sure that your workforce is ready, has the competencies that you need, and and is well trained. A few years back, UAA did an employer survey. It started just before the pandemic. We ended up having to finish it in the pandemic.

But it was really fascinating because we asked, what are those crucial skills that you need our graduates to have? And if you've hired our graduates, how are we doing? And we were pretty heartened by the results. Nobody's perfect. We had work to to do.

But what we learned is that teamwork and understanding that work means you show up and show up on time and do what you're assigned to do were the number one and number two things that employers said they needed our graduates to know. And that our programs actually did a pretty good job of teaching them. All of our programs require students to work in teams, right? There's some opportunity where students are required to work in a team.. And that dynamic is critical to their readiness to come in and be a member of your team.

And so that was one of the things that we're excited that we're going to redo this summer. Uh, we've got the same faculty that did the process the last time are going to go back to employers and they're going to expand the questions. And particularly, not surprisingly, they're going to ask about AI competency. They're going to ask about some of the other things that have been changing. What do you need now?

And how can we respond? How can we update our curriculum to make sure that when a graduate comes from UAA, they're ready to go to work in your organization? So we can go to the next slide.

Um, I thought this was a really interesting kind of example, and we actually have a UAA former debater in the room. I won't call her out. But, you know, it's not just the academic classroom programs, it's all of the opportunities that a university can provide. Here at the table we do have our Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, and if you have questions he can talk about the incredible array of leadership development programs, all of the opportunities that students have to serve on boards. Those things do develop the skills that we need our students to have so that they're ready to come and join the workplace.

Next slide. One other quick note before we dive into the resource industries. UAA is Alaska's flagship health campus. What does that mean? It means that in large part because of where we are, we have been provided the opportunity to offer the broad array of healthcare programs that need— that are needed to make the workforce that Alaska needs.

So everything from a phlebotomy training through nursing at both the associate, master's, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral level, but also our partnership with the University of Washington for the WWAMI Medical School and the PA program. A partnership with Idaho State University to offer the PharmD. Maybe none of you have ever had to fill a prescription, but getting pharmacists into Alaska is really challenging, so being able to build a steady stream of new pharmacists right here in Anchorage is key. And we know that it's important that you have good access to healthcare so that your employees can stay in Alaska and continue to work here. And so we're proud of that part of our role as well.

Next slide. All right, let's dive in. Construction and transportation. Um, our program offerings here include a number of areas of focus. I'll not call out every single program, you don't want me to read the academic catalog to you, but a few of note.

Construction management. UAA has both an associate's and a bachelor's program in Construction Management. One of the nice things is that our sister to the north, U— University of Alaska Fairbanks, also has an AAS in Construction Management, and we've purposely built the bachelor's degree so that whether a student earned that associate's at Fairbanks or in Anchorage, they don't lose any courses and can go on and do the bachelor's degree. In addition, there's a number of programs that support the transportation industry. Obviously a big one is aviation.

The aviation programs at UAA run the gamut from professional piloting to aviation maintenance, but we also have a CIC air traffic control program. And what that means is students in the air traffic control program have a leg up because the FAA has approved our program, and they're much more likely to get in and. And in recent years, 95% of our graduates have passed on the first try as they went through the FAA's Oklahoma City training program. So that's an incredible opportunity as well. We also have programs in auto, diesel, a number of areas that again run the gamut.

Next slide. Timber and forestry, we really wanted to highlight the University of Alaska Fairbanks Fairbanks. It's true that UAA has programs in geological sciences, biological sciences, particularly the GIS program within the College of Engineering is very crucial to this industry, but the, the primary programs and expertise are offered out of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the natural resources degree, and of course UAF is the institution that has cooperative Extension. This is a good example of how we all work together to make sure that there are the entry-level positions, the technicians, everything up through people with master's degrees so that they can work for the state and be the high-level scientists. We are all working together to make sure that the pipeline is being met.

We can go to the next one.

Professional development and executive leadership.

So, UAA has a number of different ways that we can actually support your current employees. Everything from non-credit trainings, a good example there is we offer the professional courses for engineers that they need to keep their licenses regular. We offer a huge array of non-credit courses in things like welding, automotive, diesel, some in the aviation area, but also within our College of Business and Public Policy, there's a certificate program at both the undergraduate and graduate level in executive management and executive leadership. There's one in Alaska Native business for those who would like to learn more about the history, but also best practices for interacting with Alaska Native corporations. And so really, we're willing and interested to meet whatever your needs are.

It's possible that UAA could, for example, come to your institution and offer classes to a cohort of students, helping them either through non-credit or through credit meet whatever competencies you need them to meet. We had a conversation recently with another member of our Board of Regents who said, you know, I'm having to fly people out of state to get an executive management training program. We would love for them to stay here. We can do that. We've got the experts in our colleges who would love to be a part of that.

That's one of many opportunities that we have for partnering. Next slide. And this is just an example of with Sharon Lynn giving a quote about the Alaska Native Business Management programs that are offered and the annual conference that she sponsors that's held each spring at UAA.

Next, we're going to briefly touch on hospitality, tourism, and travel. UAA has for many, many years had a culinary arts and hospitality program. Some of you in the room, I've seen you at the the annual fundraising event, the Celebrity Chef Invitational, or you may have visited Lucy's Restaurant on campus, which opens for a brief window and you have to scurry to get your reservations on OpenTable because it fills up really fast. But the culinary program at UAA has trained a huge number of Alaskan chefs and food service professionals, but we also train the managers. In addition, we do have some programs that support the broader tourism industry.

Certainly, all of the business management programs are appropriate for tourism and travel. And then we have a unique program down at our Valdez campus called Outdoor Leadership. During my time there, I was just fascinated by this program. They actually train the students how to be safe and effective in every conceivable Alaskan outdoor environment while bringing others along as participants. And if you can imagine a college degree that requires you to go shopping and plan the menu and figure out what the gear is going to be and do the risk reports and figure out your satellite phone and your routes, that's that program.

And it does an incredible job of training people who then work with our visitors to the state when they graduate and help them have a safe and enjoyable experience. It's a great program. Next slide. This is a photo from the Captain Cook Hotel display that our culinary arts bakery program has done for the past couple of years. You may have seen it with the gingerbread houses.

And the next slide. Oil and gas. So, uh, obviously UAA has a, a wide array of programs that support the oil and gas industry. Everything from the Process Technology program at Kenai Peninsula College, which also has an extension opportunity here in Anchorage for folks who don't happen to live on the Kenai, um, where they can take the classes here and then just go for some short-term intensive labs at Kenai Peninsula College. But of course we also have all of the engineering programs We have a long-standing partnership with ConocoPhillips.

We thank them. They're in the room. We're appreciative of that support. It's been incredible in helping support recently that Process Tech program, but also long-term support of both the students in our programs and the research that we do, and, and that's really invaluable. That photograph in the middle there is, is a recent donation that ConocoPhillips made made for the Process Tech program.

In addition, throughout engineering, whether civil engineering, mechanical engineering, geological sciences, the GIS program, we just have a wide array at the undergraduate and graduate level of programs that support the oil and gas industry. Next slide.

Critical minerals and mining. This is where geological sciences obviously is at the forefront. Forefront. We have some amazing faculty and experts. We offer both the bachelor's and the master's degree, and the students get a lot of exposure to the needs of industry.

And the, the faculty are really thinking about and working with their, with their external supporters to make sure that they stay current, and that everything is changing, as you know. And so they're really interested in trying to make sure that their students have the latest information and the latest knowledge. Next slide.

This is just an example of one of the graduate students who was a master's candidate in biology but also was serving at our Matsu College campus and some of the work that this student did about rare earth elements and glaciers. Glaciers. Next slide, please. Fisheries and maritime, particularly our two campuses, Kodiak College and Prince William Sound College, have strong programs that support students at the entry level, but as well, our Matsu College campus has the only refrigeration and heating program in the system here in Alaska. So we're training students at all levels and through a variety of ways to support this industry.

Next slide. And here's a quote from one of the students in the Marine and Natural Sciences program at Prince William Sound.

Next slide.

In terms of our partnerships in industry, I wanted to highlight something specific about the, the College of Engineering. For many years, many of the programs within our UAA College of Engineering have offered the opportunity for students in their senior year to work on real-world problems. Where do they find those real-world problems? Industries are offering examples and essentially competing for the right to have the students work on their problems. We do have the dean here, and if folks have questions and are interested in that, I would encourage you to connect with him, myself, or Vice Chancellor Dotson, and we can tell you more.

But it's really exciting to see industry wanting the university faculty and students to help them solve specific issues, and then seeing the students actually get to do it. Next slide. Denise highlighted in one of the prior slides a ConocoPhillips gift that went to to UAF and UAA. Partnerships like that make the difference, and so this is our chance to stop and say thank you for thinking about that. Whether we're working with Providence or ANTHC and thinking about needs in our state, your input matters.

Many of you serve on our advisory boards. You help us think through the standards that we need for the curriculum we're creating and the graduates we're producing. Without your input, we don't have the excellence that we want because we want to know how they get there and how they achieve. So we want to say thank you for filling in on these roles. I also want to go to the next slide and say thank you too for hiring UAA grads.

We have, uh, we promote, and if you want some of our stickers, let us know. Many of you in the room are UAA grads, and we want to keep that momentum going forward.

And with that, I think we will cover the recap and maybe open for questions. Yeah, you know, our friends at this table, the folks in the audience that work for the university system, are making a difference in our community and people's lives every day. So let's give them a nice round of applause.

That was some amazing information that really took us almost up toward end time, but I think we have time for 2 questions and then afterwards, would you all be available afterwards if folks have questions? Okay. Could we get 1 or 2 questions from the audience? Something burning?

Okay.

Well, we've got one right over here.

Hello. Wonderful presentation on workforce development. Thank you so much. I represent a small village corporation out in the Aleutian Chain. One of the issues that we constantly battle is, you know, exodus out of Alaska, and we see that across Alaska.

I know that Nana is in the room. I don't know if there's any other ANCs, but I also know that we work closely with our tribes in the region. And a lot of the tribes here in Alaska run on— in the federal grant space and have a focus and requirement, you know, coming more and more in workforce development. How, you know, how are you guys working with the different tribal entities and ANCs to be able to fulfill that requirement that they have to continue to do business?

Certainly I could start, and I would also encourage Vice Chancellor Dodson to help me out here because I think we both have a part in this. But I can give one example that's really, really salient right now. It may not sound like workforce, but bear with me. UAA has an apprenticeship program in early childhood education, and the way that that works is throughout Alaska primarily in rural and small areas, anyone who is employed in any capacity within the school can apply for the apprenticeship, and then they start taking online classes through UAA. Their on-the-job training happens inside the school that they're already employed in, and eventually they become a licensed teacher.

In many ways, the Native corporations and the tribes are the partners in this because they're helping to identify the students.

Sorry about that. And maybe to highlight one other, beyond directly serving the workforce needs, which we can do through our academic programs, we are willing and able to assist any tribal organization in their exploration of their needs that they have to meet their business objectives. As well as more recently, we've spent quite a bit of time looking at statewide migration patterns of people and understanding the drivers, what make people move from maybe a small village to a hub to a large village or out of the state. So as we continue to explore how people move, we can help local communities try to find those ways to keep people at home to do the work they need to there in community. Alrighty, and with that, we're coming to a close.