花椒直播

Arctic Leadership Initiative 路 Student Cohort

Arctic Challenge Projects 2025-26

Three interdisciplinary student teams from across the University of Alaska system spent the year turning real Arctic problems into research, policy, and tools, working alongside faculty mentors, early-career fellows, and community partners, and presenting at the 2026 Arctic Encounter Symposium in Anchorage.

17 students 路 花椒直播路 UAA 路 UAS 3 challenge teams AES 2026 路 Anchorage
Climate Adaptation & Policy

Adapting to Environmental Shifts in Arctic Communities

Arctic Professor: Larry Hinzman 路 Early Career Faculty: Anna Costa 路 Memphis Hill 路 Eduard Zdor

Why aren't permafrost adaptation solutions being implemented at the pace or scale Arctic communities need, and what has to change? The team built its case study around Point Lay (Kali), a coastal I帽upiat community of roughly 300 on the North Slope.

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of developed-area ground showed active thermokarst by 2019 (from <5% in 1949)
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increase in thermokarst rates, 1974-2019
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expected ground settlement from thaw of ice-rich yedoma permafrost
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projected rise in permafrost damage costs under medium/high emissions

Approach

  • Targeted literature review on permafrost dynamics and infrastructure vulnerability
  • Stakeholder consultations with engineers, geographers, policy researchers, and Indigenous observers
  • Participant observation with the Point Lay Regional Advisory Group
  • Reframed infrastructure failure as systemic, not just technical, favoring place-based, community-led adaptation

Policy recommendations

  • Establish a dedicated federal Arctic Infrastructure Fund
  • Require permafrost-informed development (geotechnical analysis before building)
  • Deploy proven stabilization tech (UAF-developed foam insulation)
  • Recognize permafrost thaw as a disaster to unlock preventive funding
  • Center I帽upiat governance and Cully Corp. in adaptation planning
We should not be writing grants to protect our communities. 鈥� Melanie Bahnke, Chair, Alaska Federation of Natives Climate Task Force

Student team

Lee AeoB.S. INDS 路 UAF
Malia BatchelderB.A. Criminology 路 UAA
Sean HollandPh.D. INDS 路 UAF
Kiana PotterB.A. Interdisciplinary 路 UAS
Clover StricklingM.P.A. + M.P.P. 路 UAA
Policy brief AES 2026 poster presentation ACTION Workshop, Utqia摹vik Brief returned to Point Lay community
Fisheries 路 Data & Monitoring

Food Web Monitoring in a Changing Arctic

Arctic Professor: Jeff Libby 路 Early Career Faculty fellows: Brandi Kamermans 路 Amy Holt 路 Colin Maher

As permafrost thaws and glaciers melt, the chemistry and physics of Alaska's rivers are shifting in location-specific ways that reshape fish growth potential. If the agencies and tribes who monitor rivers could add just one analysis to better forecast that future 鈥� what should it be?

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students across UAA, UAF, and UAS
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guest lectures: food-web ecology, salmon and climate, rural economics
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data sources mined: AKTEMP, ADF&G, Project Jukebox, SASP + more

Approach

  • Scoped the work to the coupled salmon-river-human system of the Yukon River drainage
  • Built a shared literature-review survey to log and annotate evidence and data gaps
  • Drew on guest experts (Jason Fellman, Erik Schoen, Mike Jones) to integrate ecology, climate, and economics
  • Ran biweekly in-person study groups in Juneau and Anchorage, syncing monthly system-wide

Why it matters

  • Community health: subsistence, longevity, and local economy depend on healthy runs
  • Environmental change: thaw and melt alter temperature, nutrients, and growth potential
  • Data gaps: most rivers go unmonitored; the team targets the highest-value analysis to add

Student team

Almeria AlcantraB.S. Interdisciplinary 路 UAS
Gabe CanfieldMarine Policy M.M.P. 路 UAF
Ella KellyB.S. Marine Biology 路 UAS
Fredric Adrian LacsinaB.B.A. Economics 路 UAA
Maranda PetersonM.S. Fisheries Science 路 UAF
Caleb Anthony Enriquez YabesM.P.P. Public Policy 路 UAA
Interactive ArcGIS StoryMap One-page synopsis AES 2026 panel
Risk 路 Governance & Resilience

Geohazards + Community Resilience

Senior faculty: Dr. Erica Hill (UAS) 路 Early Career Faculty Emily Fedders, Rick Lader 路 Advisors from UAF, IARC, The Nature Conservancy & Tlingit & Haida

When a landslide, flood, or other geohazard threatens an Alaska community, response depends on agencies, tribes, and residents communicating across very different worlds. This team surveyed the people doing that work to map where coordination breaks down, and what would fix it.

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survey responses from agency, tribal, and community personnel
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graduate + undergraduate researchers on the team
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expert consultations + interviews across Alaska and beyond

Approach

  • Designed and fielded a survey on barriers and needs in geohazard risk communication
  • Analyzed co-occurring themes (e.g., links between risk denial and distrust of government, and between mapping needs, sensor gaps, and jargon)
  • Compared how operational staff and planning staff see the same challenges differently
  • Advanced a memorandum of understanding with the Ketchikan Indian Community

What it produces

  • An evidence base on the real barriers to interagency coordination
  • De-identified community voices paired with the quantitative findings
  • Recommendations to close communication and mapping gaps before the next event

Student team

Bax BondM.S. Electrical Engineering 路 花椒直播路 ACEP
Jazzy JonesB.A. Interdisciplinary 路 UAF
Agi LehrPh.D. Biological Sciences Ph.D. 路 UAF
Adam MilitelloPh.D. Natural Resources and Sustainability 路 UAF
Kelsey NicholsonPh.D. Natural Resources and Sustainability 路 UAF
Rebecca Van WyckM.S. Project Management 路 UAA 路 ISER
Statewide survey + analysis AES 2026 poster presentation SLIPP Conference 2026, Sitka KIC memorandum of understanding
Arctic Challenge Projects are produced by the ALI Student Cohort, part of the University of Alaska Arctic Leadership Initiative, supported by Rasmuson Foundation.