Mara Kimmel

Biography

Mara Kimmel is a faculty member in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alaska Anchorage where she teaches courses in Comparative Politics, Law and American and Alaska Government. Mara is interested in issues of natural resources policy, human rights, environmental justice and environmental security.

AWARDS AND SERVICE
2010 Appointed Senior Research Fellow, Institute of the North, Anchorage, Alaska
2010 Appointed by Alaska Supreme Court Justice Winfree to the Access to Justice Court Committee
2008 Recipient, Chancellor’s Fund Award for Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities
2005 Distinguished Service Award from the Alaska Bar Association
2003 Fellow, German Marshall Fund, American Marshall Memorial Fellow
2001 Appointed by Governor Knowles to the Governor’s Tolerance Commission

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE
Mara is an attorney by training. Her practice area focused on immigration and human rights law, and she represented asylum seekers and immigrant victims of violence. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Mara worked with Alaska Native tribes on natural resource management and subsistence issues.

Professional and Departmental Service

Mara currently serves as a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of the North where she is researching issues of commons and property rights. She was also recently appointed to serve on an Alaska Supreme Court Committee examining issues of access to justice. Mara is a founding member and Board president of the Alaska Immigration Justice Project, the only non-profit service provider in Alaska that offers low cost legal assistance to indigent immigrants and high quality language services for Alaskans with limited English proficiency.