Latest news, alerts, and events.
Latest news, alerts, and events.
Foraker’s Leadership Transition team is rapidly growing so we can better support your organization through a leadership change. We know that change is inevitable and that a smooth transition from one leader to another will keep your organization focused on mission.
Please join us in welcoming Catherine Bradshaw and Mara Carnahan to Foraker. In addition, Foraker consultant Allison Fong has changed roles and is now a staff member.
Catherine is joining us as the Director of Leadership Transition. She is deeply committed to helping nonprofits develop their leadership capacity and navigate the journey of transitioning to new leadership. She brings over 25 years of experience as a coach and consultant to nonprofit leaders, with a particular focus on succession planning and leadership transition. Before joining Foraker, she was a consultant with TSNE MissionWorks, a Boston-based organization that supports nonprofits in New England. In that position, she supported more than 20 nonprofits in their leadership transition journey. Catherine is passionate about identifying and addressing barriers to diversity, equity, and inclusion in nonprofit board and staff teams. She has served as a diversity trainer for Washington State’s Department of Social and Health Services and continues to integrate this focus into her work. Catherine holds a Masters in Social Work from the University of Washington and a Masters in Organization Systems Renewal from Antioch University in Seattle. She has served on many nonprofit boards and has been an active community volunteer.
As the Leadership Transition Coordinator, Mara will ensure all details are attended to and will keep board, staff, and candidates well-informed each step of the way. Mara is excited to work with staff and volunteers who are passionate about their mission and inspired to do meaningful work. She holds a communications degree from Lewis and Clark College and has been both a staff member and volunteer for several nonprofit organizations.
As a Lead Capacity Builder with a focus on Leadership Transition, Allison helps our clients take a realistic and thoughtful approach to successful leadership change by guiding them through the Prepare, Search, and Thrive Phases of our comprehensive services. She also facilitates strategic plans and annual plans with our Partners. Allison brings a robust and diverse body of experience to the Foraker team. Most recently, she served as the program manager of the Seward Community Foundation, an affiliate of the Alaska Community Foundation. She has 15 years of healthcare experience, serving in administration, strategic planning, and business development roles within large health systems and small rural hospitals. She earned a Masters in Healthcare Administration from the University of Minnesota. Allison is a graduate and regular coach of the Foraker Catalyst for Nonprofit Excellence.
Recognizing both the importance of the census for our state and the many risks of an undercount in 2020, the working group has launched a statewide education and outreach initiative called Alaska Counts, which has four areas of focus:
Those who engage in promoting the census are our Census Champions.
Central to our initiative is the website, which serves as an information hub with a wide variety of excellent – and free – resources. You’ll find many Alaska-made products, material for social media, and messages from trusted Alaska voices. We hope that everyone who recognizes the value of the census and wants to promote it will visit the website and use the material there.
In all our outreach we have one goal – to ensure that every Alaskan participates. We are sharing three basic messages we hope will get us to that goal. Please feel free to incorporate any of these messages into your outreach efforts.
What resources are available?
In order to share our key messages, we are focusing on specific activities. We started by launching a landing page of information on the Alaska Counts website. This page will serve as a resource repository for all things about the census – such as fact sheets and social media graphics. We recently added a section on materials that have been translated in four Alaska Native languages. Check it out today. Over the coming weeks, we will continue to update the website.
We also are working on additional materials and activities to supplement what the census bureau is not able to do. That includes informational mail pieces to 88,000 Alaskans with post office boxes, more translation of key materials, mini-grants to local communities, and public radio and digital ads. You will find links to everything below:
Now is the time – become a Census Champion today!
We are excited to welcome our newest board members to the Foraker team! Tom Panamaroff, Valerie Davidson, Bernie Washington, and Michael Fredericks have joined our Governance Board. Brenda Riley has joined our Operations Board.
Tom Panamaroff, Regional and Legislative Affairs Executive, Koniag, Inc.
We welcome Tom Panamaroff who jumped right in and became a Census Champion when he joined the Alaska Census Working Group just as it was beginning a few years ago. He is deeply committed to the nonprofit sector and has given strong support to ensuring an accurate count during the 2020 Census. Tom is the Regional & Legislative Affairs Executive for Koniag, Inc. directing Koniag’s legislative agenda and regional advocacy plan. Tom has been associated with Koniag for over 25 years. Born and raised in Kodiak, Alaska, Tom served as legislative staff in the Alaska State Legislature for nearly sixteen years. During this time, Tom also served on the Board of Directors for Koniag, Inc. for over ten years. In 2000, Tom accepted employment with Koniag, Inc. as its Kodiak Corporate Affairs Manager. Two years later, he moved to Anchorage to accept the position of Vice President of Business Operations and later assumed the position of President/CEO of Koniag’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Koniag Development Corporation, which provided oversight of Koniag’s operating company sector. He then served as Interim President and President of Koniag, Inc. before transitioning to his current position. A past board member of the Alaska State Chamber of Commerce, Kodiak Chamber of Commerce, and Resource Development Council for Alaska, Tom currently serves on the boards of directors of the Alaska Federation of Natives, the Kodiak Archipelago Leadership Institute, and the Koniag Education Foundation.
Valerie Nurr’araaluk Davidson
And a warm welcome back to Valerie Nurr’araaluk Davidson. Valerie is a former Governance Board member and served as board chair for two years. She also is an alumna of the Catalyst program. Valerie was appointed Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Health & Social Services (DHSS) by Governor Bill Walker in December 2014. She led nine state divisions within the department to promote and protect the health and well-being of Alaskans. Under Commissioner Davidson’s leadership, Alaska expanded Medicaid to provide healthcare to thousands of Alaskans. She also worked with the Alaska Legislature to negotiate a bipartisan Medicaid Reform bill, which provided for the redesign of Alaska’s Medicaid program, including comprehensive behavioral health reform. Valerie has worked to improve partnerships with tribes and tribal organizations in the delivery of health and child welfare services. She also negotiated a new tribal claiming policy to extend healthcare services by leveraging partnerships between tribal and non-tribal health organizations. Valerie is an enrolled tribal member of the Orutsararmiut Native Council (ONC). She has worked for over 15 years as a national policymaker on matters affecting Indian health. She served as the Senior Director of Legal and Intergovernmental Affairs for the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, where she represented Alaska Native health needs at federal and state levels. She served as Chair of the Tribal Technical Advisory Group to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) from its inception in 2004 until August 2014. Valerie represented all tribes over a period that spanned the terms of several Secretaries of Health & Human Services and under both Republican and Democratic administrations. She earned her Juris doctorate, with a certificate in Indian law, from the University Of New Mexico School Of Law, and a bachelor’s degree in education with a minor in bilingual education from the University of Alaska Southeast. Valerie, a Yup’ik, was born in Bethel.
Bernie Washington, CFO, Alaska Public Media
We are thrilled, too, to have Bernie Washington back on the Governance Board. He was a founding board member and part of the group that envisioned The Foraker Group back in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He previously served as board treasurer and has been part of our finance committee since we opened our doors. He also is one of the board members for Sultana. Bernie has a Bachelor’s in Mining Engineering from Pennsylvania State University, and an MBA in Finance and Organizational Management from Pepperdine University. He has over 35 years’ experience in the energy business and has worked in positions in engineering, engineering management, finance, and accounting management. Bernie got into public broadcasting because he believes in the concept and credibility of the medium. Bernie is a longtime avid listener and viewer of Alaska Public Media, and that led him to want to be a part of such a fine organization. Many other nonprofits and many of our Partners have benefited from his wise counsel on the financial aspects of their management.
Michael Fredericks, President, SALT
Michael has served on the boards of several Foraker Partners. She was one of our original clients in Financial Shared Services when she was with the Georgetown Tribe and was also one of our early Pre-Development consultants. Michael is the President and majority owner of SALT. Born and raised in Anchorage, Michael is an Alaska Native of Yupik descent. Her late father, Glenn Fredericks, was born in the Kuskokwim region and her late mother Jan Fredericks came to Alaska in the early ‘60s, after being raised all over the world in a military family. Michael received her Bachelor of Architectural Studies from the University of Washington and her Masters of Architecture from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has leveraged her architectural training into a specialization in complex stakeholder engagement around design projects. Over her 16 years of experience, Michael’s facilitation services have evolved to include business planning, community engagement, project planning, complex problem solving, organizational planning, action planning, and focused conversations around challenging issues. A born listener, Michael strongly believes that the most successful initiatives harness collaborative thought and align the solution with the stakeholder – not the other way around. Providing a strong process for stakeholder engagement not only empowers the user but has proven to result in bottom-line savings as well. Michael is adept at helping groups define their unique version of success and provide them with a roadmap to achieve their goals. Away from the office, Michael lends her strategic thinking as a connector and community activator. Her proudest accomplishment is the family she has created and the eclectic group that calls her mom. Her professional qualifications include a Master of Architecture and a Certification in the Technology of Participation.
Brenda Riley, Executive Director, United Way of Tanana Valley
Brenda Riley, co-founder and executive director for the Fairbanks Children’s Museum for nearly eight years has just become the new executive director United Way of Tanana Valley. Brenda is a born and raised Alaskan and a graduate of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Currently, she serves on the Board of Advisors for UAF, is a member of the FNSB Downtown Planning Group, and is the President of the UAF Alumni Association, Fairbanks Chapter. Brenda has used many Foraker services during her nonprofit career. We are delighted she has joined the Operations Board and that we will have the benefit of all her volunteer and nonprofit work experiences.
Rather than a “day off,” let this be a “day in” where we lean into our community and one another to build bridges through acts of service and kindness to each other. Thank you for all you do every day to serve your community. Laurie
Are you ready for planned change? What about change that isn’t planned? Have you and your board talked about executive transition? Whether you are a new CEO, near retirement, or somewhere in between, it’s critical to know how mission will last beyond you. In this class, we will lead you through the steps that will ensure that your organization successfully manages inevitable leadership change.
Come to this session with your questions, your ideas, and your next steps. Along the way, we will share some tools and a process you might consider.
This session is for CEOs/executive directors. We encourage you to bring your board chair or a board member along.
Three sessions of Succession Planning: Assuring a Smooth Transition When You Change Leaders are on the schedule:
You can find more information and register here.