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Staff members are listed here in chronological order
according to the date they first came to ACAT.
Pamela K. Miller founded ACAT in 1997 and serves as
Executive Director. Since 2000, ACAT has been awarded
multiple federal grants for which Pam has been serving as
team leader and, for the past four years, as principal
investigator of a research team that includes faculty
investigators from five universities in Alaska, New York,
and California. These research projects rely on
collaborative efforts with tribes in Alaska to address
environmental health and justice issues. Pam co-directs the
Body Burden committee for Coming Clean, a national network
of groups concerned about chemicals policy reform. She is
one of the world’s foremost experts concerning the toxic
pesticide lindane, serving two governmental organizations
(United Nations and the North American Commission for
Environmental Cooperation) to address international concerns
about lindane. She was instrumental in prompting the 2006
decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to
withdraw agricultural products containing lindane from the
U.S. Pam is known for her work to prompt statewide,
national, and international chemicals policy reform to
protect environmental and human health in the Arctic and
sub-Arctic. She holds a master’s degree in environmental
science from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio (1981).
Lorraine Eckstein is a cultural anthropologist
(European-American) who volunteered for ACAT as a technical
writer and researcher until joining the ACAT staff in 2000.
She supports most projects with her administrative,
analytical, research, and technical writing skills. Dr.
Eckstein has thirty-five years of experience in research
administration with expertise in the application of
economic, sociological, and psychological models. She holds
a doctorate from the University of Washington in Seattle
(1990) and a master’s degree from Washington University in
St. Louis.
Jesse Gologergen is a bilingual Yupik Eskimo who
lives in the Village of Savoonga on St. Lawrence Island. He
has been working part-time for ACAT since 2000 as Community
Field Researcher conducting health and environmental studies
for ACAT’s projects on the Island and training field
researchers with ACAT in other Norton Sound villages. He
worked as a health aide for his village and served as Mayor
of the City of Savoonga. In the past nine years, Jesse has
traveled extensively representing ACAT and St. Lawrence
Island on environmental justice issues. From times-to-time
he comes to the ACAT Anchorage office to assist staff with
projects concerning his people.
Charlotte Jane Kava is a trilingual Inupiat Eskimo
who went as a new bride to St. Lawrence Island twenty years
ago to live with her Yupik husband. She has served as a
health aide in Savoonga, and currently is the Mayor of the
city. Jane has been working part-time for ACAT since 2000 as
Community Health Researcher—conducting health studies for
ACAT’s projects on the Island and assisting with ACAT’s
research work with other Norton Sound villages. In the past
nine years, she has represented the people of St. Lawrence
Island and ACAT at environmental justice meetings in New
York, Memphis, Seattle, Vieques (Puerto Rico), and
Washington D.C.
Viola Waghiyi is a bilingual Yupik Eskimo who was
born in Savoonga on St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. Although
her family moved to Nome, she grew up in both communities,
traveling between Nome and the Island throughout her
childhood. Vi was hired in 2002 to work in Anchorage to
assist on the St. Lawrence Island environmental health and
justice project. She became the Project Coordinator in 2004,
which included supervising ACAT’s research staff on St.
Lawrence Island. When her work on the Island expanded in
2005 to include fifteen Native villages in the Norton Sound
region, Vi’s title was changed to Environmental Justice
Community Coordinator. In 2009, she stepped into the
position of Environmental Health and Justice Program
Director Environmental Health and Justice Program Director
to share responsibilities with the executive director for
all of ACAT’s efforts. Vi is sought out repeatedly to speak
at national and international meetings about ACAT’s work.
Gabriel Carmen is a European-American and Native
American—Pasqua Yaqui (Arizona), Blackfoot, Cree
(Canada)—who has been serving as a technology consultant for
ACAT since 2003—including Web services, custom
systems/servers, network security and setup, and technology
research. He has also been providing his administrative and
fundraising skills for the past nine years to the Chickaloon
Village Traditional Council (Southcentral Alaska) as a
Forest Ranger, Tribal Administrator, Human Resources
Manager, Special Projects Manager, and (currently) as
Education Director.
Morgan Apatiki is a bilingual St. Lawrence Island
Yupik Eskimo who lives in the village of Gambell. He has
been working for ACAT part-time since 2003 as Community
Field Researcher in Gambell and with other Norton Sound
villages affected by environmental contaminants. Morgan is
knowledgeable about the environment and contamination
problems in Gambell and, at one time, served as community
liaison to the Army Corps of Engineers. He conducts
interviews in Gambell for ACAT’s health assessment project.
In this photo, Morgan is preparing a sample for ACAT’s
Traditional Foods Survey for St. Lawrence Island. His wife,
Lucy Apatiki, served as ACAT’s Community Health Researcher
in Gambell from 2000-2003.
Colleen Keane is a European-American who was hired in
2006 to work for ACAT as an Environmental Health and Justice
Organizer, a position that facilitates all five of ACAT’s
ongoing programs. She writes investigative reports, designs
brochures and posters, serves as liaison to participants of
CHE-Alaska, coordinates the Chemicals Reform Policy project,
and facilitates a variety of other projects for ACAT’s
ongoing program areas. She is part of the team who works in
the demonstration organic garden. Colleen graduated Summa
Cum Laude from Seattle University in 2006 with a B.A. in
Ecological Studies.
Eddie Ungott is a bilingual St. Lawrence Island Yupik
Eskimo who lives in Gambell, one of two villages on the
Island. He has been working for ACAT part-time since 2007 as
Community Health Researcher in Gambell and with other Norton
Sound villages affected by environmental contaminants. As a
youth, Eddie was one of the “Kids From Nowhere”
(memorialized by their school teacher), who in 1984 was a
part of “the only team of Native Americans in U.S. history
ever to win a national championship in academics.” In this
photo he is working on a mapping project to show where
contaminants are located in his village, as part of ACAT’s
three-day training program in 2008 in Nome titled:
Community-Based Environmental Research: A Field Institute.
Eddie serves as president for the Gambell Tribal Council.
Ileen Weber is a European-American who volunteered for three
weeks in 2007 to improve ACAT’s office procedures. In
January 2008, ACAT hired Ileen (as a contractor) to work
from her Seattle home office to revise and operate ACAT’s
database using SalesForce, search electronic media sources
for requests for technical comments and news stories
relevant to ACAT’s work, and track grants. Ileen is a
minister with a bachelor’s in theology from Elmhurst College
(Chicago), and master’s of divinity from Eden Theological
School (St. Louis). Rev. Weber worked seven years in
non-profit social services in St. Louis before moving to
Seattle in 1980 to pursue her photographic art. She has been
volunteering her skills for the Audubon Society in
Washington for ten years.
Sarah Petras is a European- and Syrian-American who
served ACAT as an intern in summer of 2007. She completed
her master’s degree in public health (Portland State
University) in December 2007, and came to ACAT in April 2008
to work permanently as Environmental Health and Justice
Organizer. Her work is focused on writing environmental
health materials, coordinating research projects, analyzing
data, and interfacing with health care professionals. Before
coming to ACAT, Sarah served as editor for the Oregon Public
Health Association’s quarterly newsletter. She earned a
bachelor’s degree with honors in English from Pennsylvania
State University in the Schreyer Honors College.
Sara Hannon is a European-American nursing student at
University of Alaska Anchorage who began working for ACAT in
2008, first as a volunteer and then as a part-time staff
member to conduct research and assist organizers with
projects. As part of ACAT’s efforts to monitor military
activities at the Eagle River Flats firing range, she
relentlessly pursued data from officials at Fort Richardson
in Anchorage, thus prompting them to comply to the terms of
ACAT’s legal settlement with the Army which requires that
they post on the Internet information about the chemical
makeup of munitions exploded in the estuary.
Samuel Byrne is a European-American recent graduate
from Hampshire College (Massachusetts) with a bachelor’s in
environmental health. He plans to go on to graduate school
in autumn 2010 to study environmental health and toxicology.
Sam began working for ACAT in February 2009 to research
information and report on it for our international work for
the Stockholm Convention and for our efforts in Northwest
Alaska with fifteen villages in the Norton Sound region. His
work experience also includes serving as an emergency
medical technician in Massachusetts.
Antonio Huaiquivil is a Mapuche Native whose parents
were reared in the Indigenous village of Temuco in Chile,
South America. They moved to Santiago in order to give their
children more opportunities. In Santiago, Antonio attended
the John F. Kennedy Institute for a four-year degree in
Human Resources, and subsequently worked for six years as a
Human Resources Specialist for a bank and two other
corporations. In 2003, Antonio came to Anchorage with
refugee status to escape gender and ethnic discrimination.
He attends the University of Alaska to take English courses,
and to work toward a Bachelor of Arts in photography. For
three years, Antonio was employed by Catholic Social
Services in Anchorage as Refugee Services Coordinator where
he assisted refugees from Eastern Europe and other places
throughout the world to find housing and employment in
Anchorage. ACAT hired him in September 2009 to serve as
Office/Personnel Manager.
Diana DeFazio is a European-American who was hired in
November 2009 to work as ACAT’s Development and
Communications Coordinator. She served previously for six
years with the Alaska Marine Conservation Council as
membership and communications director. She contracted for a
year to implement a human rights advocacy project for
Amnesty International (AI), and volunteered for AI for four
years coordinating volunteers and fundraising. She is an
Alaska Master Gardener and has travelled independently in
Central and South America, India, and Vietnam. Diana earned
a bachelor’s degree in International Studies (with honors)
from the University of Oregon, Honors College.
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