Alaska Legislature: House Health & Social Services, 4/23/26, 3:15pm

This meeting of the House Health and Social Services Committee will now come to order. It is 3:23 PM, Thursday, April 23, 2026, in Davis 106. Members present are Representatives Schwanke, Mears, Prox, Fields, Gray, and myself, Representative Mina Chair. Let the record reflect that we have a quorum to conduct business. Please take this time to silence your cell phones for the duration of the meeting.

Staffing the committee today, we have Andrew Gianotti, our Health and Social Services Recording Secretary, Zach Lawhorn, our LAM moderator, and Katie Giorgio, my committee aide. If you need anything during the meeting, please don't hesitate to get her attention. First item today, we have a confirmation for Norman Walker to the physician assistant seat on the State Medical Board. PA Walker, please introduce yourself for the record and tell us about your interest and qualifications for serving on the State Medical Board.

Yeah, my name is Norman Lee Walker. I am a physician assistant. I've been a physician assistant for 27 years. I've been licensed in multiple states and have practiced under several different states' laws and I'm familiar with the physician assistant practice. I've been a member of multiple state organizations and have been involved in all aspects of physician assistant practice, um, and I feel like I have a good breadth of knowledge in order to be able to help guide people getting their license, as well as if there are concerns or problems associated with their license, working with the board to get appropriate uh, in, uh, interventions and/or disciplinary actions as needed.

Um, I don't have any political affiliations or significant, uh, encumberments that would prevent me from having an unbiased opinion. So, uh, I wanted to be able to serve other physician assistants and help them to work their way through the, the process.

Thank you, P.A. Walker, for introducing yourself. Do we have any questions from the committee? Representative Gray. Thank you, Chair Mena.

Through the chair to P.A. Walker, thank you so much for putting your name forward. I am very impressed with your experience in neurosurgery, with cardiothoracic surgery, emergency medicine, and family medicine, and your experience in multiple states I think all of that is very valuable for being able to offer a well-rounded perspective on the medical board. I saw that you had served on the Montana— for the Montana State Society of Physician Assistants 2020 to 2022. Do you plan to join the Alaska Academy of Physician Assistants?

Um, I probably will. At this point, I Haven't. I do, I am a member of the American Academy of Physician Assistants, and I did have a meeting with all of the officers of the Alaska organization and discussed with them, you know, what they're looking for in the state, and as well, and they were very happy with my my knowledge, my experience, both in other states and in Alaska. And I have tried to kind of keep myself a little more neutral, which is partly why I haven't joined up to this point. Plus I've been busy with other things, but I likely will join that organization in the fairly near future.

But follow up. Follow up. Thank you. I appreciate that answer. And my second question is about having been licensed in multiple states and now being licensed in Alaska.

Can you just talk about the difference in terms of your own personal experience with the way different states license physician assistants? Oh, absolutely. So, having been a physician assistant for 27 years, I've seen a huge amount of change. You know, the way we trained back when I went through school is we're physician-dependent providers, and we aligned with the medical groups, you know, primary physician groups, and saying, you know, we didn't really need independent practice. And, um, but the entire environment has changed, where the nurse practitioners have gotten independent practice.

They've shown good competence and, you know, no significant problems that would hinder that. And then working in, like when I was working in specialty cardiothoracic or neurosurgery, it wasn't such a concern for me. But once I started doing emergency medicine in rural aspects, like, say, Montana, the organizations, the hospitals and different things found it very limiting on their ability to hire people based upon having a supervising physician because they would have a lot of physicians that wouldn't want to supervise them.

Nurse practitioner or a PA. And so they found that they could hire nurse practitioners easier. They didn't have as many administrative hurdles. And unfortunately, that led to PAs getting kind of pushed out of the market to some degree, even if they were more qualified. I like, you know, an example was I had a locums I was working full time, but I offered to do a week in a very remote area in emergency medicine with a tremendous amount of experience. And they had a physician leave and the new physician said, "Oh, I'm not gonna supervise anybody.".

Then the hospital had to fly a nurse practitioner from New York who did not have emergency medicine experience into Montana and have them provide care, which was not, you know, as safe for them. And so the fact that it's easier for organizations to license supervise or not have to supervise nurse practitioners. They, uh, they were kind of pushing physicians into only urban areas where you had a lot of physicians in order to do the direct supervision and, uh, and that sort of thing. So, you know, my take on it basically is I still feel like As a physician assistant, I'm not a physician. I may need more help than a physician is gonna need in a certain area, but I can seek that just like in Montana.

My supervising physician was a family practice doctor, and there was a lot of things he didn't know about emergency medicine. So then I would call the emergency doctors at the facility that I worked at, referred to, and they would give me the advice I needed, help me with what I needed. Um, and I think that with independent practice or, you know, less stringent requirements, we can still fulfill the need of, um, advanced practice providers to, you know, get the supervision they need without having to have the regulatory, um, and statute limitations that we currently have.

Follow-up. Thank you, Madam Chair. That was not the question I asked. However, I love everything that he said, and I believe that most physician assistants listening would agree, and I am comfortable with this candidate. Thank you for putting your name forward, Mr. Walker.

Representative Frocks.

Thank you, and thank you, Mr. Peterson. Did I get that right? Walker. Walker, sorry. Mr. Walker.

I got the PA part confused there. I'm interested a little bit in scope of practice, and you— I think you said that you were practicing at least in neurosurgery, but do Is the scope of practice for a physician assistant fairly specific, or can someone— scope of practice neurosurgery— can they practice gastrointestinal surgery or family surgery or some family practice?

So especially when you're talking specialty care, such as, like, you know, when I was in neurosurgery, I would assist the surgeon in surgery and then I would see patients with him or in the office for follow-up. Um, a physician assistant cannot put themselves out there as a neurosurgery provider without supervision. Um, we can cross over into other specialties with the appropriate training and supervision, but again, in a specialty, it's going to be alongside of a surgeon. If, uh, you know, if you're talking family practice or more general practice type scenarios, a physician assistant could be more independent and then just get guidance or help if he needed. Um, so I, I hope that answers your question.

You— we can cross over, but if we're going to cross over into a different specialty that would require a whole different amount of supervision and training. Thank you. And a follow-up: is that controlled at the licensing level or at the, if you will, the facility level, hospital or whatever? Um, that's mostly controlled at the hospital level. Um, and it, you know, at the local level, again, Physician assistant's not going to be able to hang a shingle saying he's a neurosurgery independent of himself.

The independent practice or less strict supervision would be more general practice, that sort of thing, not specialty practice. Thank you, and thank you for stepping forward to help.

Representative Ruffridge? Yeah, thank you, Chair Mina. Through the Chair, thank you for being here today and putting your name forward. Are you currently working as a PA here? Yes.

I'm actually in Delaware right this minute. I had ended my work in Alaska and temporarily got a locums position in Delaware. I'm looking for and interviewing for full-time jobs back in Alaska, but that's why right now actually my license is active, but not— I don't have a physician supervision agreement in effect in Alaska. So I couldn't just come back and start practicing. I would need to associate myself with a physician at this point.

Um, but I am actively working as a physician assistant in Delaware on a temporary basis. Okay, thank you. Uh, follow up, if I may. And so when was the last time that you were, uh, practicing in Alaska? Uh, January 2nd was my last day in Alaska.

Okay. And, and, uh, follow-up again, if I may. Thank you. Um, what, uh, what ended that, uh, job for you and had you move somewhere else? Uh, it was a mutual and end of the contract with Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium.

Um, I felt like our goals were different, um, and wanted to pursue other avenues, potentially move into either Juneau or, you know, maybe the mainland area. Just, I lived in Angoon and Wrangell, quite isolated, and so I was looking for a change and a little bit different practice. I'm thinking about doing cardiothoracic surgery again in Anchorage.

Okay, a few more. Follow-up? Yeah, thank you. I guess in, in, uh, in your total, uh, working experience, how many years have you spent, uh, of your career, uh, working as a PA in Alaska? Uh, let's see, I would say 4 years.

Okay, um, but, but you do move around a lot then? Well, I have in the past, yeah. Um, I came to Alaska, want Alaska to be where I stay, um, and, uh, you know, at this point I'm kind of tired of moving. My wife's tired of moving, and so I'm— that's one reason why I took the Logan's position, one, to get a little more recent cardiothoracic surgery experience, and two, to take the time to find a position where I felt like I could retire, probably. And I mean, from your perspective— oh, follow-up, sorry, thank you.

What are the issues, I think, either from a regulatory perspective or just, I guess, in practice, either scope or activity now within Alaska that you hope to have an effect on in your time on the board?

Well, yeah, you know, the truth is, is my, my goal isn't to change any of that. That's, that's a change or, you know, something that the Alaska PA Association is trying to get through. And like I said, throughout this, throughout the United States, there's kind of a movement in that direction. I don't really have a personal, um, goal to achieve anything. I do support some, uh, some regulatory changes to make it a more competitive work environment for, uh, physicians alongside nurse practitioners, as opposed to us being slightly disadvantaged by not having some of the freedoms that they have.

They're under the nursing board and they're like, they have less supervision requirements. I'm supportive of that, but that's not a goal or, you know, why I got on the board. You know, the reason I got on the board is some people said, hey, you know, with your breadth of experience where you've been in that we are having a hard time staffing the board. People are, you know, there's a lot of positions open. There is a physician assistant and they thought I would be a good fit for it.

But again, I don't have a personal.

Agenda or political agenda to get changes in the regulation, but I do support the changes that the Alaska Physician Assistant Organization is supporting. Uh, thank you. One final follow-up. Thank you. Do you mind asking, and I guess if you feel like it would, uh, not be something you're comfortable answering, that's fine, but, uh, who, who was the last Alaska physician that was collaborative with you?

It would be Victor Sonoy Harrison. Thank you.

I have a few questions, P.A. Walker. This is Chair Mena.

I know that you were appointed a few months ago. And I'm trying to recall whether the State Medical Board has met since your appointment, but could you comment just on your current service on the State Medical Board, how things are going, and what do you think are the big challenges that are facing the State Medical Board?

Sure, yeah, I've actually been to 2 or 3 board meetings. We just had one I think it was last week, or maybe even been this week. Um, it's been a busy week. Um, so it's going well. It took me a little bit of a time to get up on exactly what my role is, what, um, you know, different things to look at with, because a lot of, a lot of what we do on the medical board is one, reviewing license applications, making sure that people have the qualifications, and if they have had any, um, other problems prior to coming to Alaska, that they're not something that we think, uh, needs to be investigated or would be problematic for the practice in Alaska.

Then the other aspect of what we do most of the time is reviewing complaints. We have investigators that investigate the complaints and then present it to board members, and then we make recommendations. And, you know, that may be disciplinary actions, agreements with the person to seek extra education or some extra supervision or whatever for a period of time to make sure that any concerns we have are addressed. Um, and then, you know, obviously full disciplinary actions, re— uh, revoking people's licenses and that sort of thing, which is done on the full board level. So that's what most of the time is spent doing, is reviewing complaints, reviewing any abnormalities in their— in application processes.

And it's all done online now. They even— the meetings are done online until they— or if they change back to in-person meetings. But, you know, so there's— you gotta go online and look at the different references and different things that are submitted and sort through them, and it could be a significantly time-consuming thing to make sure you have a full view of the complaint or the license application, etc. And so that ends up actually being one of the, the biggest things that's facing the board right now is inadequate staffing. There are positions that haven't been filled yet.

And, you know, I don't— I'm I'm not familiar enough with it to know if it's because people have turned down or there's not enough applicants or what the issue is, but they've had a hard time keeping a full board. I mean, it is a volunteer board and is time-consuming, so it's not something to take, take on lightly. And they hadn't— I know they hadn't had a PA representative in a couple years, so.

Thank you. Another question I have: How do you view the board's role in the approval of collaborative practice agreements?

Well, the collaborative practice agreement has to, you know, the current legislation and the current rules has to be meet the criteria of adequate chart review. Does the patient, the PA, have enough experience to be on their own out in the middle of nowhere, Aniak, Alaska, or is this somebody that's fresh out of school and may need more supervision depending on their, on that? And so those are the things that you know, want to look at and at least make recommendations on, you know, you're going to have a different comfort level based upon somebody like me who's practiced 27 years versus somebody who has never had a full-time job at all. Um, you know, again, you know, the, the whole point is to protect patients first and foremost and make sure that you know, we feel it's a safe practice environment. And then, you know, there are things in there about how much chart review, how much supervision, site visits, and that sort of thing.

And so the supervision agreement needs to meet at least those minimum requirements.

Do you think there's areas of improvement in the way that the board approves collaborative practice agreements? And do you, do you see a backlog in those agreements?

I haven't been presented with any agreements yet, so I assume they would have presented me with some because I've kind of taken over all of the physician assistant stuff, at least as the initial contact, and I haven't seen any supervision agreements at all that they've asked me to review. And I, because I'm new to the board, I can't tell you what they've done in the past. I haven't because I wasn't involved at that time.

Thank you.

Are there any other questions from the committee?

I just have one last question. I know that the State Medical Board has been in the news a few times over the last year for some controversies related to different resolutions that they've passed, and I'm wondering if you just had any thoughts or perspectives on some of the actions taken by the State Medical Board that are outside of reviewing grievances and licenses.

Again, I am not aware of any of that controversy. I've heard that there was some controversy, but I don't know any specifics or anything about any of what you're referring to. Okay.

All right, seeing no other questions for P.A. Walker, thank you for putting your name forward and for putting yourself as an appointee for the State Medical Board. I will now open any public testimony on the appointment of Norman Walker. First off, is there anyone in the room who wishes to testify? Seeing none.

Is there anyone online who wishes to testify? Seeing no more individuals wishing to testify, I'm going to go ahead and close public testimony. Is there any further discussion? In accordance with AS 39580, the Health and Social Services Committee held a hearing on Norman Walker, appointee to the State Medical Board. A signature on this report does not reflect an intent by any of the members to vote for or against the confirmation of the individual during any further session.

We will take a brief at ease to sign the report and transition to our presentation from the UAA College of Health. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE].

Back on the record. Thank you, PA Waku, for being on the line. You're good to go. We will now transition to our University of Alaska Anchorage College of Health presentation. We have with us Chancellor Cheryl Seamers.

Dean of the College of Health. There will be a prerecorded video from Dr. Jay Butler, and we— excuse me, Dr. Jay Butler, who is the Dean of the College of Health. And we also have Associate Dean for Clinical Sciences Carrie Moore, Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs Andre Rosay, and also Strategic Engagement and Government Relations Officer Evan Steinberg, who is on the line. Please go ahead and put yourself on the record and begin your presentation.

Thank you. For the record, I'm Cheryl Seamers, Chancellor at the University of Alaska Anchorage, and I want to thank you, Chair Mena, for the invitation to be here today. Thank you also to Representative Gray, Fields, Mears, Prox, Ruffridge, and Schwanke for your service to our state. I'm joined by Evan Steinberg. Would you like to introduce yourself as well?

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

And we are thankful to share a little bit about UAA with you today, particularly building Alaska's health talent pipeline. I'll be joined in just a moment by Associate Deans Carrie Moore and André Rosé. But first, for my part of the presentation, I'd like to take a moment to introduce you to me in my new role. I've recently been appointed as the permanent chancellor of the University of Alaska Anchorage, moving from an interim role. I wanted to tell you as well that I have a long history in the state of Alaska.

My roots go back almost 35 years being here, and also I spent 20 years in the University of Alaska system, first serving as a director at Kenai Peninsula College. Um, I actually had moved into that role from the faculty ranks. I am an alum of UAA as well, having received a master's in English there. On behalf of UAA, I just want to let you know we are committed to health education in the various communities we serve. I've mentioned that I'm from the peninsula, But as you know, we have campuses across the central area and our emphasis on place.

As I was kicking off my interim role last year, the framework for the upcoming academic year was Together Into Tomorrow. That was a focus on our faculty, staff, and students. Collaboration and partnership are the essence of the work we do. I want to speak to you as well a little bit about our dual mission.

As a dual mission institution, we are focused on workforce development. We are also highly community engaged. Our applied research efforts solve practical problems for our state. We ask, "How can we help?" And we put the research behind it to see what answers are needed. For today's presentation, we're focusing on that health focus.

As UA's flagship health university. What is a dual mission institution? I wanna pause here because it is a phrase that UAA has been using, um, consistently over the past year and before. We are focusing on pathways for students that embrace both a community college mission all the way up through credentials as a PhD. Students can come in the door And I don't know how many of you knew exactly what you wanted to do if you did pursue a university career, but sometimes when they come in, they're still figuring out where will I go from here.

A dual mission helps a student who wants to come in the door and do a 6-month credential and get out there into, into the workforce. Or they could come in and do a 2-year degree or a 4-year degree and beyond. But what's unique about that is we make sure our credentials are stackable in so many areas. For Alaskans, sometimes we go in and out of the university system. So starting with a degree, working, but then deciding, "I'd like to achieve more and I'd like to go on." That's one of our focus points.

33% Of legislators and legislative staff are UAA alum, like me. Seawolves represent 73,000 individuals, around the globe who are making meaningful contributions in their communities and carrying forward the university's legacy of excellence. I mentioned before that we have a reach across Southcentral Alaska, but also throughout the state. We have our campuses represented on the slide here from Prince William Sound to Matsu College, Kodiak College, Kenai Peninsula, and the largest on our Anchorage campus. But our reach extends far beyond just those locations through programs like nursing that have outreach across the state, various areas of research and innovation that are making difference in how we go forward.

We're going to transition the presentation from the introduction to me to our associate deans, Carrie Moore and André Rosay, who will talk about Alaska's pipeline in that area of health. We'll trade seats.

Good afternoon. For the record, I'm André Rosé, Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs in the College of Health at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Hello everyone. So glad to be here. My name is Dr. Carrie Moore.

For the record, I'm the Associate Dean for Clinical Health Sciences at UAA.

Uh, our Dean, uh, Dr. Jay Butler, unfortunately could not be here today. He's very sorry that he could not make it. He joined us in January, and I'm sure some of you know, after an illustrious career at both the State of Alaska and at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we've been really happy to have Jay, Dr. Butler, as our new Dean. He's brought a new, fresh perspective on how we can best address the workforce needs in the State of Alaska. So I think we're going to begin with a a short video from one of these buttons.

One more, I think. Good afternoon, Chair Mena and members of the House Health and Social Services Committee. For the record, my name is Jay Butler, Dean of the College of Health at the University of Alaska Anchorage. I deeply regret that I am not able to be with you in person today, but you'll be hearing shortly from two other leaders in in the College of Health, Dr. Carrie Moore and Dr. André Rosay, who will be providing a deeper dive into the significant contributions that UAA is making to building Alaska's healthcare and human services workforce. In Alaska, access to care isn't just a policy catchphrase.

It's a geographic challenge. Whether you're in the heart of Anchorage or in a clinic in Kotzebue, the quality of your healthcare depends on the person in the room with you. At UAA's College of Health, our mission is to ensure that the person entrusted with your care— the nurse, the physician, the technician— is not just highly trained, but ideally is an Alaskan who understands our unique landscape. We aren't just educating students, we're building the state's most vital human infrastructure. I want to thank you for taking the time to learn more about the state's flagship health university.

The return on investment for the College of Health is measured in lives saved and also in economic stability. Healthcare is one of the few sectors where the demand is guaranteed and wages are high. Our School of Nursing remains the primary engine for the state's bedside care. We're aggressively expanding clinical placements and leveraging simulation technology to meet the demand of our hospital partners from the Panhandle to the North Slope. Through WAMI, our partnership with the University of Washington, we're training the next generation of physicians.

The data are clear: medical students who train in Alaska are significantly more likely to practice in Alaska. Thank you for your support of the expansion of the WAMI medical school class to 30 incoming medical students each year. A workforce pipeline that only flows into Anchorage is incomplete. To truly serve Alaska, we must prioritize rural and indigenous education and clinical placements. This means taking healthcare education further out and into our communities.

Through distance learning, regional cohorts, and working with tribal partners to create clinical rotations in tribal health facilities, we're empowering Alaskans in rural hubs to earn their certifications and degrees without leaving their communities and families. When we train a rural healthcare professional to serve in their region, we don't just fill a vacancy, we provide culturally competent care that improves long-term health outcomes. We're working closely with tribal health organizations to ensure our curriculum mirrors the reality of life in our villages and in our cities. By aligning our workforce pipelines with the Rural Health Transformation Project, we aim to create a system where an Alaskan student can go from a rural high school to a UAA health program and back to their home community as a leader. This is how we end the cycle of expensive out-of-state recruitments for healthcare professionals and replace it with healthcare for Alaskans by Alaskans.

At UAA, we are more than a campus. We are the heart of Alaska's healthcare workforce. Thank you for your partnership as we continue to build a healthier, more resilient Alaska, one graduate at a time.

Do we have any questions for Dr. Butler? Just kidding. Please continue.

Uh, so as I mentioned, my name is Andre Rosay, and I've been at UAA for almost 25 years now. I started as a professor in the Justice Center And then, uh, became an associate dean, uh, almost 10 years ago. Uh, I'll be talking about our programs in behavioral health, population health, and community health. So those are the top 4 on the left. Uh, I'll talk about the Division of Population Sciences, the School of Social Work, and the School of Justice and Human Services.

And then I'll also talk about the Department of Psychology, which is not in our college, it's in the College of Arts and Sciences, led by Dean Jenny McNulty. Uh, but I'll give you a, a few key points on the Department of Psychology. And then Carrie, uh, we'll talk about our clinical programs.

So first I'll talk about the Division of Population Health Sciences. We offer degrees at both the graduate, uh, and undergraduate level. At the undergraduate level, we offer an occupational endorsement certificate in gerontology. As I'm sure you know from the statistics that we see from the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Alaska's elderly population is growing at a very fast rate. And so working with our community and our state partners, we developed a program to train students to work with with Alaska's aging population and to promote healthy aging.

This is a relatively new program, so in 2025 we graduated just 5 students, but we're looking to expand that program. Then we also offer a baccalaureate degree in Health Sciences that has two tracks: a pre-clinical track that trains students for graduate medical studies for physician for physician assistant, for physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, pharmacy, uh, and medicine. And then we have a second track, uh, which is the health educator track, uh, which trains students to join the behavioral— the health promotion workforce. And so they focus on disease prevention and on wellness. And we graduate approximately 30 to 40 students per year.

The vast majority of those students do stay in Alaska, more than 80%, uh, within one year of graduating are employed here in the state of Alaska, and they are in high-earning jobs. Uh, 5 years after graduation, the average wage is more than $90,000 per year for these graduates. The program works both with high school students to try to recruit and interest students into health sciences, and then we also offer an accelerated pathway way into graduate programs, and we have two graduate programs, the graduate certificate and the Master of Public Health and Public Health Practice. These programs train the state's leaders in the public health system, so many of them will work for the state of Alaska, others will work for the tribal health system in public health. That program just recently celebrated its 20-year anniversary, and I want to thank Representative Gray for honoring the program in its anniversary with the Slave Citation, and on average we graduate about 10 to 20 students per year.

And again, most of those graduates stay here and practice here in Alaska.

Uh, next I'll talk about the School of Social Work. At the undergraduate level, we offer an occupational endorsement certificate in interprofessional child welfare practice. So you can see here is this really talks about that dual mission that Chancellor Simmers was talking about. We offer everything from occupational endorsement certificates all the way up to graduate degrees. The Interprofessional Child Welfare Certificate was developed in close partnership with the Office of Children's Services.

As I'm sure you know, OCS has significant challenges with both recruitment and retention, and we are absolutely committed to helping OCS address those challenges. And so since 1998, The School of Social Work has housed the Child Welfare Academy, which trains all child protection workers in the state of Alaska. And those employees have an opportunity to earn college credit for their training, and at the same time, we have students who are trained in child welfare practice. So this is definitely another program that we are looking to expand. The The other undergraduate program that we have in the School of Social Work is the Bachelor of Social Work, uh, which prepares students for entry-level beginning social work practice.

We generally graduate about 20 to 30 students per year out of the BSW, and again, the vast majority, uh, 80%, stay here in Alaska and are working in Alaska within, uh, 1 year of graduation, and about half of them will continue on to graduate studies. I will also mention that the Bachelor of Social Work is also available at UAF, and we work very closely with that program to also bring students into the graduate program. The only graduate program in social work, uh, in the state is at UAA. It is an online program, uh, so it is available to students throughout the state of Alaska. Uh, this program was established in 1997 And since then, we have produced over 700 students out of the Master of Social Work program.

So that's 700 social workers for the state of Alaska. We're very happy of that, but at the same time, we're well aware that we're still not meeting the need for social workers in the state. And so a few years ago, we initiated a significant expansion of the Master of Social Work program hoping to grow the cohort from 35 students up to 85 students. The startup funding was provided mostly by Recover Alaska and a wide variety of other organizations including the Matsu Health Foundation, Rasmussen Foundation, Southcentral Foundation, the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority, the Municipality of Anchorage, the State of Alaska, Providence, and then Primera. Uh, and then this expansion, once we reach 85 students, will become self-supporting.

And so the— these entities are providing the startup funds so that we are able to grow, and then once we've reached a capacity, we will be able to support the program.

Next, I'll talk a little bit about the School of Justice and Human Services. This is a school that focuses on advancing the well-being and safety of Alaskans and communities. Graduates are prepared to work as helping professionals in a variety of different settings. A lot of them work in social service agencies, some of them in public safety and in corrections. These are the students who are often the first responders to people in crisis or to crisis situations.

A lot of them will work for the Department of Family and Community Services, particularly the Division of Juvenile Justice. We're a very close partner with them, and also the Office of Children's.

Services. They, uh, end up in a wide variety of careers, uh, as peer support specialists, reentry specialists, uh, victim advocates, and many, many more. UAS, uh, and UAF both offer programs in human services and in justice, and then in addition, they offer programs that are specifically targeted for law enforcement. And for homeland and Arctic security. By comparison, the degrees in Justice and Human Services have a broader focus, preparing students to respond to people who are in crisis, understanding that many of these crises have roots or are exacerbated by social and behavioral health issues like homelessness, substance abuse, mental health abuse and neglect, and victimization, and again, many more.

Overall, we graduate about 60 to 70 students per year out of the School of Justice and Human Services. And again, the vast majority, depending on the programs, between 75% and 91% remain here in Alaska. We have a question from Representative Gray. Thank you. Um, can you talk just briefly about the guardianship program?

Sure. Through the chair, thank you for the question, Representative Gray. Uh, the guardianship program was developed very closely with our state partners, and the goal was to increase the number of students who become public guardians. Um, this is another area where in the state we have a severe lack of individuals working in this field. Uh, there is a severe workforce shortage, and so we developed this program in close partnership with the state to address that need.

I will tell you though, unfortunately it's been challenging to get students to be interested in becoming guardians, which is surprising because this is a 1-year program. Students take 4 courses and then they do a practicum with the public, with OPA, and then they're ready to be employed and they're ready to be licensed. At the national level, and they can earn a very high wage. Paul? Thank you.

Through the Chair, um, House Judiciary is going to be doing a hearing on guardianship. We could have somebody from the program speak if we just touch base offline. Through the Chair, that would be wonderful. Yes, thank you. Representative Fields?

Um, through the Chair, what, what is that high wage at which graduates would start with OPA? Through the Chair, I'll have to get back. I want to say $90,000. Starting. It was particularly if you are in private practice.

Well, let me get back to you and make sure that I give you the exact numbers. Follow-up? Through the chair, yeah, I would be interested in seeing what job does a graduate go into at what level and what jobs are state versus other jobs. Thank you.

Please continue. Thank you. Representative Frocks. Actually, first question, just a time check. How much time do we have before the presentations are over?

An hour. Hour. Ooh, then that's going to run into the deadline for asking questions. Okay. Oh, you can ask a question.

Well, I guess if I could wait until all this is out, then start asking questions, I would. Okay. More polite for them. That sounds good. Please continue.

Thank you. Finally, for— I'll talk a little bit about the Department of Psychology. Again, this is in the College of Arts and Sciences, which is led by Dean McNulty. At the undergraduate level, we offer a bachelor's degree in psychology. UAF also has a baccalaureate degree in psychology, and we offer an optional concentration in behavior analysis.

That program is, is a rather large program. It graduates about 60 to 70 students, uh, per year. And these are, uh, students who are prepared to enter the behavioral health workforce, uh, and to pursue graduate studies, uh, in psychology and in other health sciences. At the graduate level, uh, we offer two master's degrees, one in clinical psychology and one in, uh, school psychology. The school psychology is relatively new.

The first cohort of students will graduate in 2028. And this is another example where UAA developed a program in response to statewide needs, in this case for school psychologists. Working closely with the state, we developed this program, and initial startup funding was provided by the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority through a congressionally directed spending request that was supported by Senator Murkowski and by the Department of Education and Early Development. So again, this is an example where you start— we use funding to start a program up And then once the program is fully implemented, it will be self-supporting. And then finally, our signature program in behavioral health is the PhD in Clinical Community Psychology that prepares students to be licensed as clinical psychologists with a rural and indigenous emphasis.

And we graduate about 10 students per year out of that program.

So that's the end of my presentation, and then we go on to clinical programs.

All right. Well, hello again, everyone. I'm Dr. Carrie Moore. I am a transplant from Louisiana, but my family and I have lived here for about 18 years. My healthcare practice was in occupational therapy, and I spent about 25 years as a pediatric occupational therapist supporting infants and young children who experience neurodevelopmental challenges.

And I have had lots of different roles at UAA. I started to dip my toe in academia as an adjunct and then moved into a program director role and most recently into the dean's office. So we'll spend maybe 15, 20-ish minutes because I do want to save plenty of time for questions and, and conversations. To begin with, our School of Allied Health— let me get that, there we go— uh, offers primarily 2-year associate degrees or occupational endorsement certificates. As you can see there on the slide, we have a variety of programs, and of note is our radiologic technology program that supports cohorts in Anchorage and Fairbanks, and when there is a need, uh, in Kenai.

Now typically, uh, a high percentage— I feel like 100% is pretty binding here, but close to 100% of the graduates for these programs do stay in Alaska and enter the workforce here. Um, I'll just note quickly, our certified nursing assistant, we're graduating approximately 60 students per year as CNAs, knowing there's such a high workforce demand for that role. Uh, similarly, our medical assistants, we're graduating 12 per year with all of them staying here. In the state, and then our Diagnostic Medical Sonography and Radiologic Technology program, also with high numbers of graduates staying here in the state. Our School of Preventive and Therapeutic Sciences offers associate through graduate degrees primarily in our rehabilitative fields such as dietetics, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech-language pathology.

In terms of those numbers, um, we've— we are graduating approximately 30 dietetics students, and that's our combination of our bachelor's and our master of science degree. And approximately, um, half to 60% of those students are staying in state. And our, um, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and physical therapy students graduating approximately 30 students per year in those programs, with again a real high percentage staying in the state to enter the workforce.

Our School of Nursing, we really do aim to provide nursing education across the state. We do utilize a variety of delivery mess— delivery models for the various degree programs with clinical skill and simulation lab spaces at designated campuses. Students can complete an associate's degree in their home community and then continue their education with the online Bachelor of Science program for registered nurses. I'll also highlight our partnership with UAF in offering the Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree. This is our pre-licensure track, so intended for students who have not previously held a nursing degree.

Our graduate programs offer a variety of options to support the development of advanced practice nurses, nurse educators, and nurse leaders across the state. And again, our, um, metrics in terms of students that stay to stay in state after graduation are very high. For our graduate programs, that's about 80% of students are staying in state. And then our associate degree programs and our bachelor programs, those are about 90% of students staying in the state. Representative Fields, um, through the chair, um, hospital employers tell us they can't hire enough nurses and there are a growing number of travelers.

Do you all run the numbers to see what hospitals are spending on travelers versus what it would take for hospital corporations to more directly augment training with their own funding? I would think that the cost of travelers has become high enough it would be economic for larger systems like Providence to help expand your nursing programs. Agreed. And while I don't know those metrics off the top of my head, agreed that it probably.

Is— we're on that side of the scale in terms of the cost savings. And Providence is a huge supporter. They do offer scholarships to our students for, uh, in return for a service agreement. So we certainly are exploring those kinds of options with all of our community partners. Um, but absolutely the need is great, and, and there are challenges in terms of faculty recruitment, clinical placements, things like that.

But we absolutely are continuing to produce, uh, the graduates as we're able. I would be curious for more specifics on, you know, to the extent that Providence has shared numbers with you or would be interested in sharing numbers with legislators on what are— what is the math in terms of how many travelers they employ? Sure. How much could they scale up scholarships with? It sounds like a service agreement, so the graduates have to work it.

I mean, I'm using Providence's an example, hopefully a lesser example. I'd just be interested in how much they could scale up because I think that kind of employer-funded training is probably necessary to reach demand in certain occupations. Absolutely, and be happy to get those metrics for you. Sure. Okay, thank you.

Representative Prox. Yes, thank you. Uh, through the chair, I guess on a more general level, how do you determine the demand for the need for this worker or that worker.

And then I'm guessing that somehow you have goals and objectives for individual departments and all the way down, and we don't see that necessarily, but is that available to the public? I guess we represent the public. Oh, certainly. So in terms of how— we absolutely use the AHA and Department of Labor in terms of metrics of need. So those employment data and employment metrics put out by those two organizations in terms of— we don't have a lot of autonomy of adjusting our cohort numbers.

That's largely set by our accrediting bodies. But to your second point about information on program goals, program aims, The university has a fairly robust program review process, and that is available online. All of that information is— happy to share that website with you if you'd like. And is that answering your question? Almost.

Okay, let's try again. Okay, through the chair, this is Andre Roseo. I'll add a little bit more. So every year we look at the, the numbers from the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, looking at the labor projections and the numbers from the Alaska Hospital and Healthcare Association. And then we compare that to the number of students that we graduate, and we assess where the gaps are.

And when we identify the largest areas of gaps, that's where we're going to focus our efforts, particularly on recruiting students. Uh, this will also drive our resource allocation decisions. Wherever the largest gap is, that's where we're going to be focused on, especially if we know that we have the capacity to grow in some of these programs.

Follow-up. Follow-up. Yes, thank you. Through the Chair, you have some internal process for doing that, and we're not in the business of micromanaging the university. Don't want to do that.

But you come to us to get paid. We do. And we're looking for maximizing return on investment. Roughly, and it would be really helpful to know more about that in detail so that, you know, can we— the biggest shortage is right here, but we can't change a program in 6 months, I would imagine. I don't know, but there's some challenges.

But identifying, you know, how can we meet certain goals and objectives and measure that and then come back and keep everything— because I think that would really help the public understand the value of the university. Absolutely. So follow-up conversation, perhaps. Mm-hmm.

I have a question. I know there's a lot of talk about trying to expand the nursing workforce, and you mentioned earlier different— factors that would help— would limit your ability to expand. So right now, what are the biggest limiting factors to expanding the nursing program? I would say faculty recruitment and clinical placements.

Thank you. All right, please continue. Okay, follow-up. Um, through the chair, I don't know enough to know what you mean by clinical placements as a barrier? Why are there insufficient clinical placement opportunities?

Yeah, thank you for the question. Um, each of the programs requires a certain number of hours. Um, that's both a degree requirement and also a licensure requirement. And so that is where we are, um, very fortunate again to have really strong partnerships, um, certainly within the Anchorage community and across the state. Um, There are often times where we are looking for additional clinical placements, particularly, um, when we consider our nursing students in more rural parts of the state.

So sometimes those clinical placements for those students to be able to stay in their home communities, um, we are looking and, um, needing more clinical placements outside of just our more urban areas. To the chair, so regional tribal health providers aren't able to give you replacements? Is that what you're saying? No, I just don't understand. Oh sure, I think perhaps maybe numbers and kind of metrics would be more helpful, but in terms of, uh, our number of available clinical placements does influence how many students we could— we can accept into each cohort.

We can't accept more students than what we have clinical placements for.

Okay, but why aren't— but yeah, through the chair, but why aren't there those spots? What is the barrier to a regional health provider in a rural hub or a Bartlett Regional Hospital or a Fairbanks Memorial? I'm guessing these are where there aren't enough clinical placements. I don't know, but why aren't there enough of those facilities?

I would respond that it is, it is an extra request of a healthcare worker to take on the clinical needs of a student, certainly. So I think that, that is one issue. Again, our community partners are very supportive. And encouraging their own employees to commit to student clinical placements. That's part of performance reviews and things like that within our community partners.

Um, does that help? I don't think I understand, but maybe we could ask AHA too. Thank you. Representative Green. Thank you.

I will answer my question from my experience. Number one, for some, and just as somebody who's precepted PA students for medx actually. So you have to have somebody willing to do it first and foremost. And why would somebody not be willing to do it? Because it's extra work and it's not paid.

So it's like, who's willing to volunteer to do it? Okay, let's say you have volunteers who are willing to do it. Their supervisor has to say that they want them to do it. And sometimes supervisors are like, I don't want a bunch of students on my floor. So some supervisors don't want a bunch of students there.

So you have to have alignment where supervisors want this to happen. And then you have to have folks who are willing to do it out of the goodness of their heart, really, to want to supervise students and to be their preceptor. So I could see— so in other words, it's not necessarily like that we have tons of people who could do it. There's tons of people who could do it. But most of them are not willing to.

That would be my best guess.

Thank you for the direct response. I guess just to add on to this, have you all looked at different ways of trying to help incentivize providers or organizations to do clinical placements, given that you're adding more work and they're not being paid to take on additional work? [Speaker:DR. LISA SMITH] We have. One of the ideas that is often discussed is at the level of the licensing board providing— whether it's continuing education credit or something, some other incentive at the level of licensure for those healthcare providers who are taking on students.

Okay. And then one last question. Are you able to do placements at community health centers? I'm just thinking for— OK. And do we currently do that? We do.

OK. All right. Thank you. Please continue.

Whammy. We have— we are so grateful and have benefited so much, obviously, from our longstanding partnership with the University of Washington. I'll also mention here our partnership with Idaho State University. For the Doctor of Pharmacy and a second partnership.

Up with the University of Washington to offer the Master of Clinical Health Services for Physician Assistants. Uh, I'll mention briefly here our, uh, the Alaska Center for Rural Health and Health Workforce, and it's dedicated to strengthening Alaska's health workforce with a focus on our rural communities and addressing workforce shortages. They have recently launched a program called PATH Academy, which is designed for individuals 16 years and older looking to explore and jumpstart a career in healthcare. It provides hands-on training for essential skills and 5 nationally recognized clinical certifications, uh, examples of which would be CPR, MANT de-escalation training, and bloodborne pathogen training. Program graduates become prime candidates for entry-level healthcare employment or apprenticeships, and upon completion, participants are directly connected with network employment specialists for dedicated job and apprenticeship placement.

So that's just one example of some of the programs that our Alaska Center for Rural Health and Health Workforce is running.

OK, summary slide in that College of Health offers over 45 healthcare programs at 14 locations throughout Alaska, offering opportunities for the CNA degree up through the whammy MD through our medical school partnership with the University of Washington.

Okay, and noting it's 4:30, we can spend the— maybe the next few minutes talking about the Rural Health Transformation Project, which we are all very excited about. For a quick kind of high-level summary, we put out the call to College of Health and received over 65 abstracts from faculty. Those These abstracts were reviewed and vetted by the college and then sent forward to the university for review. In summary, there were 30 letters of interest that were submitted to the state portal across all 3 universities. That would be UAA, UAF, and UAS.

And again, programs ranged from rural training rotations for nursing students to financial support for clinical placements, paramedic and EMT training, gathering data on the community impact of RHTP projects, and also the purchase of simulation equipment to support various healthcare programs across the state.

On the slide here, you'll see that these are the 6 sort of priority aims that our state has identified for this project. And so once again, those projects that were put forward, the letters of intent that were submitted, were vetted for how well they aligned with these 6 priority areas.

Uh, one of the, um, projects that we developed within the College of Health, um, involves the development of an academic medical center for Alaska. So an academic medical center is, uh, not just a big hospital, nor is it an individual medical school It is a partnership between a university and a healthcare entity, or in our case, entities, and this concept shifts Alaska from a consumer of healthcare services to a producer of healthcare solutions. In rural states like ours, an academic medical center serves as a healthcare ecosystem supporting healthcare needs across the state, providing critical opportunities to retain our Alaska-trained physicians, and offering integrated research opportunities related to health equity, population health, and public health. Uh, typically academic medical centers have a tripartite mission, that is clinical care, education, and research. For our specific proposal, um, a few distinctions are important.

In, uh, the area of clinical care, we were hoping to explore and conduct a feasibility study on the opportunity to have a value-based academic medical center versus a fee-for-service medical center. And that's really well-timed in terms of the shifts that CMS, the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, is shifting away from fee-for-service and more towards value-based payment systems. So in this proposal, we would be building that from the beginning, building in that value— that focus on values-based care. Um, the second component of an academic medical center is the education. And once again, we're so thankful for our partnership with University of Washington and offering that undergraduate medical education, the medical school component.

Um, there are efforts underway to establish a Graduate Medical Education Council, or GME Council. And, uh, in medical education, the graduate portion includes residency and fellowships. And as we discussed earlier, um, starting in 2029, we'll have 30 medical students graduating a year, and we currently have between 12 and 14 residency slots in the state. So best practice obviously is to have as many residency slots as we have graduates. So a big component of this, um, project would be developing and, uh, accredited residencies in opportunities such as psychiatry, primary care, obstetrics, um, and possibly other, other specialties that would be certainly dictated by our community partners across the state.

In terms of research, the academic medical center would offer opportunity for integrated research related to health equity, population health, and would certainly draw research professionals to our state.

Representative Ruffridge. Yeah, thank you. Well, it sounds like an exciting opportunity.

What is the, I guess, financial outlook with rural healthcare transformation funds? How much— how many— how many dollars do you need to get this started? Our total proposal was $30 million, and that is subject again to advisement. Our first-year proposal was for $2 million, and that would allow us to recruit and vet a consulting firm that can help us navigate this journey and provide kind of the necessary guidance and legal counsel for all of the memorandums of agreement and the master service agreement that would be required. Understood.

Follow-up, if I may. Follow-up. How similar would this program be— the one that I'm familiar with is the ISU-UAA partnership. It seems, hearing you talk about it, that this would function very similarly. They have residency programs as well.

As a part of that, they have to have a connection to an outside school. But I guess, how similar would it be in function to that? Uh, it is similar in terms of residencies, but it would also be a fully operating healthcare facility. That's the other component of this. Is it's healthcare training partnered with a healthcare facility, a healthcare entity.

Okay. And follow-up, if I may. Follow-up. Sorry, I misunderstood that then. I was under the assumption that the facility would be a partnership with, let's say, an Anchorage-based healthcare operation.

Your proposal would be to open essentially like a teaching hospital or of some sort? We would be partnering with existing entities, but it would fall under, I think, the description that you're saying is a teaching hospital. Yes. Understood. Thank you.

Representative Frocks. Quick one, to be cold and hardcore about this. Through the chair, do the— my understanding is one of the goals of this role, the money that we're getting, is that when this money is done being spent in 5 years, Somehow these programs are going to be self-sustaining. Do you think that might happen and how might it reduce— either improve service or reduce cost 5 years from now, 4 years from now, because we got 1 year burned up already? Sure.

Thank you for the question regarding the sustainability plan. And that is absolutely the plan for this project. Academic medical centers are significant revenue generators and based on the expansion of those resident slots. So residents are billing CMS and other insurance, other providers. So the end result is that this project would be self-sustaining after the 5 years.

Okay. And follow-up: do you have some sort of a, if you will, a business plan that says invest in this as opposed to invest in something else? The— that would be accomplished in our, hopefully, our first year as we identify and work with a consulting firm. Years 2 and 3, if we were to be awarded, would be the work of the business plan under the guidance of that consulting firm. Thank you.

Please continue.

Essentially, I'll do a quick— Uh, I'll do a quick summary, uh, in terms of year 1 of this proposal would be our feasibility model. Um, another aspect of this that's of great interest to us, kind of knowing the needs of our state, is there is a category of academic medical centers, um, called essential or safety net academic medical centers. And these institutions focus on the care of underserved and marginalized.

Populations and would have a tripartite mission towards social determinants of health, complex chronic care, and implementation science. So again, that's— those are those conversations in the first year along with the feasibility study. Year 2 would be our business plan. Year 3, formalization. Moving into years 4 and 5 of opera—.

Opera—. Excuse me, operationalizing and implementing the proposed plan.

The residencies would be established, our 30 medical students would be matriculating through them, and our primary and preventive care would be prioritized across the state. The other component of this, a part of our proposal, is that all of the residents would also do training in rural sites. So it really would prepare our Alaskan physicians to practice within our state and be prepared for the unique healthcare needs of our state. What were the— what was the tripartite mission again? Of academic medical centers in general?

Care, education, and research. Or your specific proposal, you said social determinants of health? Yes. Social determinants of health, complex chronic care, and implementation science.

To make a clear comparison, how would this change be compared to the training of physicians, Alaska physicians, through the WHAMI program?

If I'm understanding your question, Shermina, it would essentially just expand, expand the training because we would have more residents, more residencies, excuse me. It wouldn't change the undergraduate medical component of the WHAMI program. We'd really be focusing on looking at that graduate medical education component with the expansion of residencies and fellowships. And if I may, Carrie, I think the one big difference is it would keep students in the state. Uh, it would keep them here in Alaska for their residencies instead of having to go out of state and then hopefully come back.

And do all Alaska, Wyoming students have to go out of state for their residencies? No, not all of them. We have, again, those 12 to 14 dependent per year residencies, so not all of them, but certainly not enough to meet the need of our 30 graduates.

Please continue.

In conclusion, um, we are grateful for your time this afternoon, for the conversations, for the dialogue, and, uh, it really is— indeed, it's a privilege to be, uh, Alaska's largest university with our dual mission emphasis, really wanting to and meeting— meet the need of that health talent pipeline while being a community-engaged university. We're happy to entertain further questions. I'll just add, I hope you saw that we develop and implement programs that are designed specifically to address the needs that we have here in the state of Alaska, and we work very closely with our community and our state partners to develop and implement these programs, and in many cases they fund the initial development of those programs. And our graduates are making a difference. They are here, they stay here in Alaska, they practice here in Alaska, and they improve the health and well-being of people in communities.

And again, I just want to say we're thrilled to have Dr., Dr. Butler as our new dean. Brings, brings a fresh perspective, and we're looking forward to further expanding how we address the healthcare needs in the state. So thank you very much. Thank you for your presentation. Do we have any further questions from the committee?

Representative Rofrige. Yeah, thank you. It really seems, especially in the healthcare space, that your programs do a really good job of connecting with other universities. Rather, is that somewhat unique? I don't see that in other places, but —there, it's not just ISU, it's University of Washington, it's Creighton, it's others.

I'd— is there other university systems that you're thinking of partnering with in the future, and is that a unique type of program, partner like that? I wouldn't say it's unique. I think there's plenty of other universities who utilize partner program affiliations, we'll say. In terms of The healthcare degrees, it is a great opportunity to really utilize existing resources. In this case, it's the expertise of these partner universities.

So for us to stand up these programs on our own would obviously be quite intensive. And so it is, it's a great opportunity again to bring, to bring the degree, to bring the opportunity to students in our state and to to really rely on, again, the expertise and experience of these highly valued partner programs. Yeah, I think—. Follow-up, if I may— one of the areas that I'd be interested in, you know, we consistently hear in these positions about our need for just increasing access to mental health treatment. What options are you looking at from the College of Health perspective in that area?

Through the chair, thank you for the question. I'm happy to report that at this point I think we have the capacity to grow in our helping professions of human services, social work, psychology.

What I think the largest barrier right now is getting students interested in professions of mental health. And when I think about high school students, it's rare that we see high school students say, I want to be a mental health professional when I grow up. And so we are working with high schools to try to make sure the students understand what a career in behavioral health entails and try to get them interested. But that's really our biggest challenge right now, is recruiting students into the program. We do have the capacity to grow at this point.

Thank you. Representative Prox.

Thank you. A follow-up to that. So you're— well, makes sense that you would— your recruiting market, if you will, would be the schools. Are you working with the Department of Education, individual school districts?

Through the chair, yes, very closely. Uh, Carrie talked a little bit about the Alaska Center for Rural Health and Health Workforce. We have several programs that are specifically designed, like the, uh, uh, Mental Health First Aid. So we train high school students in Mental Health First Aid. We introduce them to career options in behavioral health.

They can also obtain dual credits, so while they do high school classes, they can already obtain credit that will count as part of their degree at UAA. So we do a lot of work to try to encourage them to get on a pathway towards a behavioral health degree, but it's a— it's challenging. It's not easy work. Follow-up? Follow-up.

So do you have— you said you have the capacity to do more educating.

Is that a number? This— we're operating at, I don't know, 65% capacity or something like that, or we could expand to this or that, and then more details. We think if we advertise somewhere or somehow do something, we can get X amount more, and somehow this is going to lead to a goal in a couple of years, in 4 or 5 years. Years and then come back and it worked or it didn't. And then I don't mean that to just burden you, if you will, but I, I think there's some things that have worked out right and we should brag about those things.

And then there's some things that, well, didn't work out as we thought, and we should know that, well, they didn't. Okay, so we gotta do something different.

And I think that really would, again, help the university, help the public to understand that, to focus on a little bit of success, because all we see here for everything is problems and need more money, and that gets a little depressing.

Through the chair, we're happy to share our success stories with you. Absolutely. Yeah, we should.

Any other questions from the committee?

All right, seeing none, I want to thank all of our presenters to get today for coming down to Juneau and talking about, uh, UAA's work in our healthcare workforce. I'm a little biased as a Seawolf, but, uh, all universities matter. But as UEA being designated as the College of Health for the system. Um, you are all doing a lot of work to help mobilize and leverage that to help communities across the state. So I appreciate, um, all of your work.

All right, the next meeting of the House Health and Social Services Committee will be Tuesday, April 28th at 3:15 PM here in Davis 106. The time is 4:50 PM, and this hearing of the House Health and Social Services Committee is now adjourned.