Member Directory

2023-2024 Tri-Chairs

Committee Members

  • Thomas Chung
    A headshot of Thomas Chung

    Thomas Chung

    Assistant Professor, Fine Arts
    tpchung@alaska.edu
    (907) 786-1738

    Tom Chung was born in New Jersey and got his MFA from Yale University in 2013. He has been teaching at UAA for five years and is the Painting Program Coordinator with the Fine Arts Department. His artwork and research deals with issues of racism, bigotry and cultural exchange. Chung feels passionately about working towards a society with equity for all people.

     

  • Jordan Darryl
     
     

    Jordan Darryl

     

  • Kitty Deal
     

    Kitty Deal

  • Herminia Din
    A head shot of Herminia Din

    Herminia Din

    Professor, Arts
    hdin@alaska.edu
    (907) 786-1785

    Herminia Din is full professor of art education at University of Alaska Anchorage. She specializes in museum technology and community-based art education. Since 2008, she has been advancing the Junk to Funk project—a community-based art series that focuses on using recycled materials to create beautiful yet finished functional artworks in an open studio art environment. She received the 2013 UAA Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Sustainability for her efforts to raise awareness of the “reduce” and “reuse” methods of dealing with waste products. In 2014, she began the Winter Design Project, a collaborative learning experience connecting faculty and students to take an in-depth look at “ice” and “snow” from a new perspective. Currently, her work focuses on Plastic Pollution in the Arctic by using community art as an action for change. Grounded in educational theory and practice, she engages students in hands-on learning on a theme of global significance.

     

  • Gabriel Garcia
    A head shot of Gabriel Garcia

    Gabriel Garcia

    Associate Professor, Health Sciences
    ggarci16@alaska.edu
    (907) 786-6532

    Dr. Garcia is a Philippine-born, Alaska-grown, Associate Professor of Public Health at University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA). He is also the Coordinator of UAA’s Master of Public Health Program. He received his B.S. in Biochemistry and a minor in English at University of California Davis and M.A. in Medical Sciences and M.P.H. in Social and Behavioral Sciences at Boston University. In 2008, Dr. Garcia received his Ph.D. in Public Health with a minor in Anthropology at the University of California Los Angeles. He was a Fulbright-Hays scholar at UCLA, studying Filipino Language and Culture at De La Salle University in Manila, Philippines. Dr. Garcia’s research interests include tobacco and alcohol, cancer prevention and control, and health disparities among Asians and Pacific Islanders. Dr. Garcia was the recipient of the Alaska Public Health Association’s “Short Term Service Award” in 2002 and “The Barbara Berger Excellence in Public Health Award” in 2012. At UAA, Dr. Garcia has been awarded the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Community Service, Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Diversity, and the Center for Community Engagement Learning’s Community Builder Award. Dr. Garcia, along with a group of UAA faculty and students, were awarded the UAA’s Stewardship Award in 2014 and American Lung Association in Alaska’s Breathe Easy Champion Award in 2015 for the group’s successful effort in making the University of Alaska system smoke and tobacco-free. In 2015, Anchorage Mayor appointed Dr. Garcia as one of the health commissioners of the municipality’s Department of Health and Human Services. From 2016-2017, Dr. Garcia served as the President and CEO of the Asian & Pacific Islander Caucus for Public Health, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and an affiliate of the American Public Health Association. Since 2009, Dr. Garcia has been a member of UAA’s Faculty Senate Diversity Committee and a co-chair from 2011 to 2017.

     

  • Songho Ha
     
    A head shot of Songho Ha

    Songho Ha

    Professor, History
    sha4@alaska.edu
    (907) 786-1650

    Songho Ha has taught at the University of Alaska in Anchorage since August 2005. He received a Ph.D. from the University at Buffalo in 2003. Subsequently, he taught at the University of New Brunswick Saint John, Canada, and the University of Northern Colorado before joining UAA. Dr. Ha's teaching and research focus is American history in the first half of the 19th century. He published The Rise and Fall of the American System: Nationalism and the Development of the American Economy, 1790-1837 in 2009 through Pickering & Chatto Publishers of London. A Korean translation of the book was published in 2014 by Hakgobang Press in Seoul. Dr. Ha also published a number of articles and book chapters both in English and Korean. He received a Fulbright Fellowship and many other grants and fellowships.

     

  • Maria Hahn
     

    Maria Hahn

     

  • Erin Hicks
    A head shot of Erin Hicks

    Erin Hicks

    Assistant Professor, Physics & Astronomy
    ekhicks@alaska.edu
    (907) 786-7764

    Erin Hicks is an Assistant Professor of Astronomy and Director of the UAA Planetarium and Visualization Theater.  She has been on FSDC since 2014 and currently serves as co-chair.  Erin has advocated for underrepresented groups in science, particularly physics and astronomy, for many years and has enjoyed broadening this effort to promoting diversity and inclusivity across the UAA campus as a member of FSDC.

  • Wei-Ying Hsiao
    A head shot of Wei-Ying Hsiao

    Wei-Ying Hsiao

    Professor, Education
    whsiao@alaska.edu
    (907) 786-4435

  • Cammie Hsu
     

    Cammie Hsu

  • Seta Kabranian-Melkonian
     

    Seta Kabranian-Melkonian

    Professor, Human Services
    sbkabranian@alaska.edu
    (907) 786-6449

     

  • Emily Madsen
    A picture of Emily Madsen

    Emily Madsen

    Assistant Professor, English
    emadsen6@alaska.edu
    (907) 786-4371

    Emily is a member of the English Department. Her research interests include religion and material culture in the nineteenth century, and Victorians and the Arctic.

  • Amana Mbise
     

    Amana Mbise

    Multicultural Postdoctoral Fellow, Social Work
    ambise@alaska.edu
    (907) 796-9610

     

  • Vanessa Meade
     

    Vanessa Meade

    Term Assistant Professor, Social Work
    vmeade@alaska.edu
    (907) 786-6903

     

  • Jenny Miller
    Picture of Jenny Miller talking to a colleague

    Virginia (Jenny) Miller

    Associate Professor, Health Services
    vlmiller2@alaska.edu
    (907) 786-6588

    Jenny Miller is a faculty member in the MPH Program and recently completed a rotation as Department Chair for Health Sciences. In addition, she serves in the role of Training Director for the Alaska LEND Program at the Center for Human Development.
  • Kimberly Pace
    Photo of Kimberly Pace

    Kimberly Pace

    Term Assistant Professor, Political Studies & Women's Studies
    kjpace@alaska.edu
    (907) 786-4837

    Kimberly Pace grew up in Soldotna, Alaska. She did her undergraduate work at the University of Montana and graduate work at Miami University in Ohio, and she has been teaching at UAA since 1998. Her primary interests include Comparative Politics, International Relations and American Government. She is the Faculty Director of Model United Nations of Alaska and the Director of Women's Studies here at UAA, and teaches classes both face-to-face and online. She is inspired by the issues of Climate Change & Sustainability.

  • Jessica Ross
     

    Jessica Ross

     

  • Sondra Shaginoff-Stuart
     

    Sondra Shaginoff-Stuart

    Alasa Native Studies
    slshaginoffstuart@alaska.edu
    (907) 262-0213

  • Rei Shimizu
     

    Rei Shimizu

     

  • Lauren Wallace
     
     

    Lauren Wallace

     

  • Maria Williams
     

    Maria Williams

    Professor, Alasa Native Studies
    mdwilliams6@alaska.edu
    (907) 786-6136