About the Selkregg Award
The Selkregg Award draws from a memorial fund established in the name of Fred M. Selkregg,
Jr., a longtime Alaskan who was a civil rights activist, community leader, and spiritual
teacher; and Dr. Lidia Selkregg, a city planner and UAA professor who worked passionately
for Anchorage’s ports and watersheds, rural and urban welfare, and civil rights. The
Selkreggs brought a commitment to openness, truth, democracy, and social justice to
all of their work. Additional gifts are provided by the Iden and Selkregg families.
Purposes of the award are to recognize community engagement projects with significant
discipline-based scholarship, community partnership, and student leadership development.
The proposed projects should ultimately aim to improve the quality of life for Alaska
residents and develop ethical values, civic leadership, democracy, and social justice
on campus and in the community.
Past Selkregg awardees
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2024 Selkregg Award Recipient
Amanda Biggs
Community partner: Alaska Office of Public Advocacy
Out of Crisis: Developing Ethical Guardianship for Alaska’s Most Vulnerable
The Public Guardian system is facing overwhelming demands in Alaska requiring Public Guardians to have caseloads of 80 clients and higher, in violation of national standard. Even when the Public Guardian agency receives sufficient funding and positions, it remains unable to fill positions with qualified and certified candidates, resulting in higher turnover and subsequently higher caseloads for the remaining Public Guardians. This has led to the existing guardianship crisis in the state. The project will create an effective training and educational program to equip practicing guardians, new guardians, and students interested in guardianship with the core competencies of guardianship.
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2023 Selkregg Award Recipient
Jessica Ross
Community partner: Native Village of Eklutna
Nughejagh "To become healed": Engaging Alaska Native Elders in Designing a Participatory Culturally Responsive Trauma-Informed Intervention in the Eklutna Community Health Center
Alaska Natives have endured centuries of trauma from war, colonization, medical experimentation, forced sterilization, and forced assimilation. This trauma has led to mistrust of governmental, educational, and medical organizations. This trauma and mistrust of health organizations persists in the production of dire consequences for Alaska Native Peoples’ health, as Alaska Natives have some of the highest rates of diabetes, heart disease, cancers, substance misuse disorders, and suicides. The project aims to promote healing from trauma among Alaska Native people and build trust between health care providers and Alaska Native patients. The project created an Alaska Native Elders Steering Council and incorporated Alaska Native students in the project.
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2022 Selkregg Award Recipient
Dr. Adam Dunstan, Department of Anthropology, Kenai Peninsula College
Community partner: Kenaitze Indian Tribe
Salmon Stewardship: An Ethnographic Research Project with the Kenaitze Indian Tribe
This project with the Kenaitze Indian Tribe details the cultural relationship with salmon for the Kahnuht'ana Dena'ina in the past and present. The research will include oral history, Indigenous Knowledge, and practices on salmon fishing, relationships, and sustainability. The project will also examine how this cultural relationship is being impacted by environmental and sociocultural changes.
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2021 Selkregg Award Recipients
Dr. Leslie Redmond 
Dr. Amanda Walch Leslie Redmond and Amanda Walch, Dietetics & Nutrition
Community Partners: Food Bank of Alaska and the American Heart Association
Establishing a Student-Supported Campus Food Pantry to Improve Food Insecurity at UAA
Learn more about the project:
Nearly 45% of students at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) experience some type of food insecurity. In addition to increasing health risks, food insecurity also negatively impacts student success, with food insecure college students more likely to report a low GPA, have overall lower energy, and decreased ability to concentrate than their food secure peers. This project brings together students, staff and faculty at UAA as well as community partners including the Food Bank of Alaska and the American Heart Association who have a shared passion for improving food security among college students. The goal is to establish a student-supported food pantry on campus that meets the diverse needs of UAA students and contributes to improvements in food security, self-sufficiency, diet quality, and social support. The pantry will be led by a Student Board, which will allow students to be directly involved in decision making and management and opportunity to gain experience and skills related to leadership, strategic planning, volunteer management, marketing, and fundraising.
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2020 Selkregg Award Recipient
Britteny Howell, Division of Population Health Sciences
Community Partners: Alzheimer’s Resource of Alaska and Last Frontier of Comedy
Improv to Improve: An Improvisational Communications Training Program for Dementia Caregivers in Anchorage
Learn more about the project:
Britteny M. Howell, PhD is a Credentialed Professional Gerontologist (CPG), a Certified Dementia Practitioner (CDP), Assistant Professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage in the Division of Population Health Sciences, and the director of the UAA Healthy Aging Research Laboratory. Her work focuses on healthy aging in the urban Circumpolar North and on training Alaska's future gerontology and geriatric workforce. Dr. Howell's lab has several ongoing projects that involve undergraduate students in the design, data collection, analysis, and presentation of results of research involving older adults. She is a recent UAA INNOVATE award recipient, a current faculty fellow for the National Resource Center for Alaska Native Elders, and has worked on several projects through the CCEL and CESA programs. The lab's current work includes a purpose-in-life study among low-income residents of Anchorage and Fairbanks, an ethnographic exploration of older women's social experiences in water aerobics classes, and a health promotion intervention to increase fruit and vegetable intake and physical activity among diverse Anchorage seniors.
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2019 Selkregg Award Recipients
Aisha Barnes, Department of Writing
Community Partner: Anchorage Museum
Close-Looking: Building Skills for Writing and Observation with the Anchorage Museum
Professor Barnes’ project focuses on bridging the divide between writing and art. This collaborative project designed in partnership with the Anchorage Museum will bring students to the museum and teach them about Alaskan art, careers, and writing opportunities associated with art exhibits, culture, and community outreach. As part of the collaboration, museum staff and community leaders will present three lectures/discussions at UAA regarding ethical acquisitions and the roles of museums in communities. The students’ cumulative course projects will give them multiple opportunities to respond creatively to art in the museum in a public venue. Student-created audio projects about museum objects will be available to the public on the museum website.
Michele Burdette-Taylor, School of Nursing
Community Partner: Central Lutheran Church
Interprofessional Academic Service-Learning Student-Led Free Clinic
Dr. Burdette-Taylor’s project expands a foot and wound care clinic for the homeless of Anchorage into a primary care clinic. The clinic will increase the number of providers skilled in administering specialized care and remove barriers for the homeless in need of care. This is an interprofessional academic service-learning model that brings together a collaboration among the WWAMI School of Medicine, UAA’s School of Nursing, Central Lutheran Church and community outreach partnerships. Faculty, students, and community partners will provide medical and psychosocial services at Central Lutheran Church. Students will be offering clinical and emotional care while completing clinical course objectives and learning about interdisciplinary care, social justice issues, and developing an understanding of the values of community service.
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2018 Selkregg Award Recipient
Hattie Harvey, Department of Psychology
Community Partner: Cook Inlet Native Head Start & Cook Inlet Tribal Council Head Start
Bridging Efforts in Early Childhood Yup’ik Immersion Programming
Partnering with Cook Inlet Native Head Start and Cook Inlet Tribal Council’s Early Head Start program, Dr. Harvey’s project recognizes the imperative to strengthen the quality and accessibility of early childhood programs in our state of Alaska. This collaboration continues foundational work by Dr. Harvey on early childhood development. It is designed to foster the exchange of information between teachers and families and to provide families with opportunities to engage with culturally-relevant Yup’ik activities and materials. The project is intended to serve as a foundation for the development of a larger network, Early Childhood Native Network for Immersion Programming, to address a state-wide need to connect resources for early childhood immersion programming.
Learn more about the project:
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2017 Selkregg Award Recipient
Jamie Elswick, WWAMI
Community Partner: Central Lutheran Church
"Mobile Foot Clinic for Anchorage’s Homeless Population"
Elswick’s project “Mobile Foot Clinic for Anchorage’s Homeless Population” brings together a collaboration among the WWAMI School of Medicine, UAA’s Nursing faculty, Central Lutheran Church and local outreach partnerships to deliver mobile basic foot, nail, and wound care to Anchorage’s vulnerable homeless population. UAA medical and nursing students will be trained and gain valuable experience and awareness of issues facing vulnerable populations. This project will increase the number of providers skilled in administering specialized care and remove barriers to clients receiving needed treatment. Students will provide mobile foot care at local service locations, including self-care outreach with personal care kits and allow for on-site care of common foot and wound care to decrease associated health issues. In addition to increasing access to services, this project will instill values of community service and outreach among the next generation of medical practitioners.
Learn more about the project:
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2016 Selkregg Award Recipient
Ian Hartman, History
Community Partner: Cook Inlet Historical Society (CIHS)
"A Comprehensive Study of African American and Civil Rights History in Southcentral Alaska"
Professor Hartman is deepening an existing partnership with the Cook Inlet Historical Society and building a network of contacts in the NAACP/Anchorage chapter, Shiloh Baptist Church of Alaska and the Martin Luther King Foundation of Alaska to provide African American community leaders, activists, and working people an opportunity to share their stories and reflections of life in Anchorage.
The archival research and oral history interviews will emphasize the migration of African Americans to Alaska prior to and during World War II, housing and employment discrimination, mobilization and activism of African Americans during the Civil Rights Era, and the impact and legacy of discrimination into the present. The project will showcase Anchorage as a diverse city with a rich, multicultural history, advancing a new and exciting interpretation of the city. The research will be incorporated into curriculum on the history of Alaska and a new course entitled History of Race and Ethnicity in the American West, bringing together students, community members and educators with an explicit mission to shed light on a history that has remained in the shadows.
Learn more about the project:
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2015 Selkregg Award Recipient
Kathryn Ohle, Early Childhood Education
Community Partner: Unite for Literacy and Head Start
Supporting the Preservation of Native Languages and Encouraging Early Literacy with Children's Books
Professor Ohle's project "Supporting the Preservation of Native Languages and Encouraging Early Literacy with Children's Books" seeks to provide children's books to families, children, and teachers in Alaska Native languages through the use of a free digital library with translated texts, as delivered through UniteForLiteracy.com.
Linguistically unique educational needs are especially prominent in Alaska, as Native students currently have lower rates in literacy achievement and higher rates of high school dropouts than any other group of students. The need to preserve Alaska Native languages might be even greater, for the average Alaska Native tongue has fewer than 1,000 speakers, the majority of whom are over the age of 70.
Dr. Ohle's work with language preservation and early literacy is based on recommendations from the Alaska Native Language Preservation and Advisory Council. Promoting whole family learning and speaking, with a focus on early childhood literacy, is a best practice for reinforcing Alaska Native languages and culture.
Learn more about the project:
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2014 Selkregg Award Recipient
Rebecca Robinson, Psychology
Partner: Refugee and Immigration Services Program (RAIS), Catholic Social Services
Professor Robinson continues a longstanding partnership with RAIS that began while she was a graduate student in clinical/community psychology. For the next year, she proposes to complete a local needs assessment for the refugee populations in Anchorage by gathering qualitative data from refugees and community organizations that serve refugees. A PhotoVoice project with refugees, combining photography with grassroots social action, will provide insight into how they conceptualize their circumstances and help solve problems they face.
James Fitterling, Psychology
Partners: Homeward Bound, Anchorage Rescue Mission, Habitat for Humanity Anchorage, First Covenant Church of Anchorage
Professor Fitterling designed a partnership that brings organizations together with volunteer homeless individuals in building adequate housing for Anchorage families unable to obtain conventional house financing. His past experience as chief of a chemical dependence treatment program in Mississippi demonstrated the therapeutic rationale for providing people with opportunities to engage in productive activities. He will replicate a similar collaboration in Anchorage, including qualitative research and a PhotoVoice project.
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2012 Selkregg Award Recipient
Irasema Ortega, Elementary Education and Language Education
Community Partners: Kashunamiut School District, College of Education
Professor Ortega’s work strengthened an existing partnership between the Kashunamiut School District and the College of Education. Ortega collaborated on curriculum for Alaska Native teachers to teach science from Native and Western perspectives, including knowledge of the elders and promoting a more harmonious, sustainable view of the natural world.
Learn more about the project:
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2011 Selkregg Award Recipient
Tracey Burke, Social Work
Community Partner: Food Bank of Alaska
Professor Burke worked with UAA students to conduct research with the users of food pantries and to produce a series of “Day in the Life” sketches of poverty and hunger. By partnering with the Food Bank of Alaska and associated agencies, Burke and students identified challenges and opportunities for new strategies to reduce hunger for Anchorage families.
Learn more about the project:
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2010 Selkregg Award Recipient
Cathy Sullivan, Nursing
Community Partners: Catholic Social Services, Refugee Assistance and Immigration Services (RAIS), and the Refugee Youth Choir in Mountain View
The Refugee Youth Choir is composed of children and teens from many different countries, including Somalia, Bhutan, Sudan, and Iraq. Professor Sullivan and a group of senior nursing students worked with these young people to identify and address health concerns affecting themselves and their families. Some of the concerns included dealing with the stress of relocation to a new country, building positive peer support networks, avoiding harmful behaviors, and accessing health care in a new and very different land. This community health learning experience increased the students' awareness of diversity in Anchorage and gave them hands-on practice with some of the ways health care providers must adapt to meet the needs of new immigrants.
Learn more about the project: