marilyn romano

Regional Vice-President, Alaska

Alaska Air Group

arctic encounter board of directors

On July 26, 2011, Marilyn Romano joined Alaska Airlines as its Regional Vice-President, Alaska. Marilyn oversees public affairs, corporate giving, sales and marketing, and governmental affairs in Alaska, in addition to interacting with the 1,800 employees throughout the state. Alaska Airlines flies to 19 communities in the state, only three accessible by road, making air transportation as vital as a highway system is in the rest of the country.

Prior to joining Alaska Airlines, Marilyn spent nearly two decades at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, and was the publisher for 11 years, serving as the seventh publisher in the newspaper’s history, and its first female top executive.

Currently, Marilyn is past-chair of the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation board of directors, a board member of the Alaska State Chamber of Commerce, and the statewide board of the American Heart Association.  She also serves as a member of the University of Alaska Foundation board of trustees.

In March of 2014 Marilyn was inducted into the ATHENA Society, which honors female leaders who work to set an example for the next generation of leaders.

She graduated on June 5, 2017 with Executive MBA from the University of Washington.

JACKIE QATALIÑA SCHAEFFER

DIRECTOR OF CLIMATE INITIATIVES

ALASKA NATIVE TRIBAL HEALTH CONSORTIUM

ARCTIC ENCOUNTER BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Jackie Qataliña Schaeffer, an Iñupiaq from Kotzebue, Alaska, is the Community Development Manager at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. For decades she has worked across Alaska holistically infusing indigenous knowledge into a variety of sectors she has experience in, including comprehensive planning, energy, housing, water security, and sanitation and climate change adaptation for rural communities. Her passion is to serve the indigenous people of Alaska and provide an indigenous perspective to all her work, including the importance and recognition of traditional philosophies, knowledge and lifestyles.

Qatalina received her fashion degree from the American College in London, Residential Space Planning certificate and studied Interior Design at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. Qataliña has co-authored six regional Energy Plans for the State of Alaska, the Oscarville Tribal Adaptation Plan, 2019, and has worked with Newtok and Kivalina on community relocation due to climate change. Qatalina serves as a Board Director on the NANA Regional Corporation, Koahnic Broadcast Corporation (KNBA Radio), and Rural Community Assistant Corporation. 

GAIL SCHUBERT

ARCTIC ENCOUNTER BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Gail R. Schubert is the former President & CEO of Bering Straits Native Corporation (BSNC), an Alaska Native regional corporation serving 17 villages in the Bering Strait region. She is Iñupiaq and was born and raised in Unalakleet, Alaska. She has served on the boards of the Alaska Federation of Natives, Alaska Native Justice Center, ANCSA Regional Association, Commonwealth North, the Iditarod Trail Committee, State of Alaska Renewable Energy Fund Advisory Committee, the Native American Contractors Association, and the University of Alaska Foundation. She has served on the BSNC Board of Directors since 1992. Schubert joined BSNC in 2003.

Schubert is an ATHENA Society awardee, recipient of the Northwest Indian Bar Association’s Unsung Hero Award, and YWCA Alaska/BP Woman of Achievement Awardee for her leadership and excellence in her professional and personal endeavors, as well as her contributions to the larger community.

Schubert practiced law in Anchorage after a successful career on Wall Street, where she worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and two Wall Street law firms. She earned an undergraduate degree from Stanford University, a Master of Business Administration from Cornell University's Johnson School of Management with an emphasis in accounting and finance, and a Juris Doctorate from the Cornell University School of Law.

MEGHAN GAVIN, TREASURER

attorney, cascadia law group

arctic encounter board of directors

Meghan is an associate at Cascadia Law Group PLLC, where she handles complex environmental and natural resource matters. She offers her clients litigation, regulatory, and counseling services. Prior to joining the firm, Meghan worked as a two-year term law clerk for the Honorable Ronald B. Leighton, District Judge for the Western District of Washington. She also worked as an extern for the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Meghan’s work with the Arctic Encounter Symposium began in 2014, in preparation for the second-annual symposium. She assisted with all
logistical operations and personnel management, which contributed to AES's winning the American Bar Association's 2015 national Law Student Program of the Year Award. Meghan looks forward to helping AES grow into a leading advocate, worldwide, for the Arctic and the people who live there.

JENNY GORE DWYER, VICE PRESIDENT & SECRETARY

owner & PRESIDENT, ST. GEORGE MARINE, INC. 

arctic encounter board of directors

Jenny Gore Dwyer was born and raised in Ketchikan, Alaska. She has been involved in commercial fishing since she was a teenager, working on cannery “slime lines,” on fishing boats and fishing tenders.

In 1986 Jenny and her husband, Pat Dwyer, formed St. George Marine, Inc. They built their company from the ground up, working together on Alaska's fishing grounds and becoming involved in fish politics. Together, they lobbied state and federal officials on issues related to the Alaska seafood industry. In 2005, Pat was diagnosed with ALS and Jenny became a committed advocate for the ALS cause.

Jenny serves on Board of Directors of the ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS TDI), the world’s largest ALS research lab. She has met with senior members of both the U.S. House and Senate to bring attention to the need for increased federal support for ALS translational drug research.

St. George Marine’s three vessels are involved in the Alaska winter crab and cod fishery, and the summer tender season. Jenny is also involved with the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers (ABSC), which works to help continue sustainable fisheries through scientific research, policy development and marketing.

john garner

retired seafood executive and northern fisheries professional; alaska, washington & japan

arctic encounter board of directors

John Garner is a retired seafood executive with 50 years involvement in the regulating, harvesting, processing and marketing of Alaska seafood.  His career encompassed all coastal management areas in Alaska from Southeast to the Norton Sound, and major federal fisheries offshore of Alaska.  He also served in fisheries related government capacities as a Commissioner of the Alaska Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission and a Board member of the Alaska Board of Fisheries.  John was also heavily involved in the effort to rationalize the Bering Sea crab fisheries, which resulted in federal legislation to grant individual fishing and processing quotas.

John is a graduate of the University of Washington School of Law and was admitted to practice in the State of Alaska.  He lived in Alaska from birth for nearly 40 years, now residing in Seattle, Washington. John has been heavily involved in a variety of non-profit organizations throughout his career, including being a Board member and past President of SeaShare, the seafood community’s response for hunger relief. Learn more at seashare.org.

dr. Brendan P. Kelly

Director and Chief Scientist, Study of Environmental Arctic Change, International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks

FORMER ASSISTANT DIRECTOR FOR POLAR SCIENCE, THE WHITE HOUSE

arctic encounter board of directors

Brendan P. Kelly, Professor of Marine Biology at the International Arctic Research Center (University of Alaska Fairbanks), directs the Study of Environmental Arctic Change, a multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural study. He also serves as a Senior Fellow with the Center for the Blue Economy at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. A marine ecologist with a focus on sea ice environments, he has  participated in and led collaborative research in the North Pacific Ocean, Arctic Ocean, Sea of Okhotsk, Baltic Sea, and Antarctica. His studies of ice-associated marine mammals benefitted from close collaborations with Indigenous hunters, scientific colleagues, students, and some very smart Labrador retrievers. He has led national and international efforts to understand and respond to climate change in numerous leadership roles including as Deputy Director of the Arctic Division of the National Science Foundation, Assistant Director for Polar Science in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Executive Director of the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee. Brendan received degrees in Biology from the University of California Santa Cruz (B.A.), the University of Alaska Fairbanks (M.S.), and Purdue University (Ph.D.). He enjoys sailing with his son and watching for fires from a mountain lookout with his wife.

Benjamin Kellie

Entrepreneur in Residence at the Center for Economic Development at the University of Alaska anchorage

Arctic Encounter board of directors

Ben Kellie is an Alaskan entrepreneur that brings over a decade of experience in hard tech startups and aerospace, as well as twenty years of remote logistics and critical operations management. He is driven by a love for Alaska and the vision of a regenerative economic future.

Most recently, Ben successfully exited “The Launch Company,” a bootstrapped aerospace startup that specialized in autonomous rocket launch ground systems and logistics, to Voyager Space. He now serves as the Entrepreneur in Residence at the Center for Economic Development at UAA helping serve diverse entrepreneurs across the state.

He previously founded K2 Dronotics, an Alaskan UAV startup, as well as led the field development of the SpaceX autonomous landing barges “Just Read the Instructions” and “Of Course I Still Love You” after serving as lead engineer on the SpaceX west coast launch site at Vandenberg SLC-4E.

He has an MS in Mechanical Engineering from the Ohio State University, as well as a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. When not at work, he enjoys writing, music, exploring outside, and adventuring with his family.

Emily Edenshaw

President and Chief Executive Officer, Alaska Native Heritage Center

Arctic encounter board of directors

Emily Edenshaw (Yup’ik and Iñupiaq) is the President and CEO of the Alaska Native Heritage Center (ANHC), one of America’s Cultural Treasures and a renowned statewide living cultural center dedicated to advancing all Alaska Native cultures and peoples. With roots in Emmonak, Alaska, Emily was adopted into the St’langng Laanas Thunderbird Raven clan in Old Massett, Haida Gwaii. She is a proud Tribal Citizen of the Native Village of Emmonak Tribal Citizen and a Doyon Limited and Calista Corporation shareholder.

Outside her leadership role at ANHC, Emily actively serves on boards like the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness, Native Americans in Philanthropy, and the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER) Civic Advisory Board. Emily is a PhD Candidate at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, researching Alaska Native Boarding School experiences and healing strategies related to these experiences. Emily holds an Executive MBA from Alaska Pacific University and a Bachelor’s in Journalism and Strategic Communications from the University of Alaska Anchorage. Her diverse career includes impactful contributions to Central Council Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, First Alaskans Institute, Alaska Pipeline Service Company, Southcentral Foundation, and Alaska Communications, to name a few.

Emily lives in Anchorage with her family and enjoys traveling to other Indigenous communities across the globe. Emily’s Yup’ik name, Keneggnarkayaaggaq, translates to a person with a beautiful persona, spirit, aura, and friend, while her Xaad kil (Haida) name, Tl’áa Kihl Xánj, translates to “The People’s Echo.”