Our board reflects a wide spectrum of the community and it represents science, education and business in Southeast Alaska.

Jim Seeland – Chairman

E-mail: jseeland@sitkascience.org

Jim has a B.S. in Fish and Wildlife Biology and 30 years of experience in trout and salmon biology. He worked for NSRAA for most of his career and was the Medvejie Hatchery manager. He is a faculty member of the UAS Fisheries Technology Program and he loves those little salmon as if they were his own.

Trish White – Vice Chairman

E-mail: twhite@sitkascience.org

Trish was born and raised in Sitka and has been a pharmacist for thirty years. She and her husband own White’s and Harry Race Pharmacy. She has a BS in pharmacy from Oregon State University. She has been a strong supporter of science, fishing, hiking trails and fine arts education in Sitka.

Heather Meuret-Woody – Treasurer

E-mail: hwoody@sitkascience.org
Heather is a research biologist with the Sitka Tribe of Alaska. Heather earned her B.S. in marine biology from Sheldon Jackson College in 1996 and has a deep understanding of the legacy of Sheldon Jackson’s science program and the need for the SSSC in the community. She has worked for National Marine Fisheries Service at Little Port Walter, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Armstrong-Keta at Port Armstrong,and Northern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association. Her focus is on Pacific herring and marine invasive species.

Kitty LaBounty – Secretary

E-mail: klabounty@sitkascience.org

Kitty is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) in Sitka where she has developed biology and natural history courses for both traditional college students and community outreach. She is botanist with over 20 years of experience working in Southeast Alaska for multiple federal land management agencies. Current research projects include rhizosphere fungi of muskegs and ecology of cedar epiphytes. Kitty is a Master gardener and co- host of the local public radio show, The Garden Show.  Kitty is a founder of the Sitka Sound Science Center.

Scott Harris

E-mail: sharris@sitkascience.org

Scott has extensive project management experience as a program manager for NASA Ames Research Center. He was Assistant Professor for the Outdoor Education Program at Sheldon Jackson College and a senior staff instructor for the National Outdoor Leadership School. He holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from University of Texas and a M.S in Natural Resource Management from University of Alaska Fairbanks. Scott likes to kayak and hit the outdoors in his free time.  Scott is a founder of the Sitka Sound Science Center.

Bill Smoker

E-mail: bsmoker@sitkascience.org

Bill is Emeritus Professor of Fisheries after 32 years at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, School of Fisheries & Ocean Sciences, based in Juneau. Bill is among the leaders of a 30-year series of experiments on pink salmon, a decade-long experimental study of outbreeding depression in coho salmon, a multiyear study of the estuarine ecology of hatchery & wild chum salmon fry, and of development of fish culture practices for the Alaska salmon fishery enhancement program. In his non-science hours, Bill likes to sings with his church choir and local chorus which he has done for many years.

Kristen Green

Email: kgreen@sitkascience.org

Kristen is the groundfish project leader for the Division of Commercial Fisheries at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. She came to Sitka right after receiving her masters from Moss Landing Marine Laboratory. She holds a BS from University of California Santa Barbara. She has a variety of experience in scientific research including penguin studies in Antarctica, and developing intertidal survey protocols in California.

Nancy LeClerc Davidson

Email: ndavidson@sitkascience.org

Nancy has 27 years of experience in non-profit accounting. She is the behavioral health operations manager for the Southeast Regional Health Consortium. She was finance director for Sitka Prevention and Treatment Services for nine years.  She holds a MBA from University of Alaska Southeast.

Justin Penny

Email: jpenny@sitkascience.org

Justin is the Business Relationship Manager at Wells Fargo.  He has a B.S. in Management from Northern Michigan University.  He grew up in Michigan exploring the wildlife diversity of the Great Lakes.  After moving around Alaska for a few years, he settled in Sitka.  He was drawn to the Science Center’s educational pursuits which mimicked his own childhood experiences.  In his free time, Justin enjoys back-country snowboarding, fishing, hunting, and drumming.

Linda Waller

Linda grew up in Vermont on Lake Champlain and has always loved being on or in the water. She loves to travel, SCUBA dive, snorkel, and kayak. Linda is currently employed at Sitka Sound Seafoods as the computer network manager. Linda has been volunteering for Sitka WhaleFest  for 12 years and was also a volunteer on a whale research trip to Seymour Canal in December 2006.  Linda joined the Sitka WhaleFest Board in 2011 and the Science Center Board in 2012.

Steve Clayton

Steve has lived in Sitka for 38 years. He is a owner of Clayton Construction and has extensive experience working on some of Sitka’s historic structures. He is also a commercial fisherman. He enjoys science and education and has joined the Sitka Sound Science Center to give back to the community.

 

Advisory Panel

Jan Straley

E-mail: jstraley@sitkascience.org

Jan has been an Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Alaska Southeast since 1999 and an independent marine biologist studying humpback whales and other large cetaceans in southeastern Alaska since 1979. She holds an MS from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in Biological Oceanography and has held federal research contracts and published journal articles focusing on population dynamics, feeding ecology, and social structure of large whales. She was a founder and served as board president of Sitka WhaleFest until 2007 when she became the Science Director. Jan is a founder of the Sitka Sound Science Center.

Keith Cox

E-mail: kcox@sitkascience.org

Keith is a research marine biologist.  Keith has a Ph.D. in Fisheries from West Virginia University with post-doc opportunities at Oregon State University, USDA and University of Alaska Fairbanks.  Keith was Environmental Science Departmental Chair at Sheldon Jackson College.  He is a founder of the Sitka Sound Science Center and is past chair of the board.