Staff
Directors
1901 Bragaw Street
Phone: (907) 786-0432
Email: jllibby@alaska.edu
1901 Bragaw Street
Phone: (907) 786-1663
Email: hpaulsen@alaska.edu
David Leiva joins AERC as the Associate Director of Education and Workforce Programs. He previously served as the Senior Academia Advisor for the FEMA Interagency Recovery Coordination cadre, working in Alaska, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, and Texas to bring multiple Institutions of higher education into the long-term recovery process at various federally declared disasters. David is the co-author of FEMA’s Project SCALE (Securing Capacity through Academic Leadership and Engagement), a tactical and statewide approach to resolving long term post-disaster recovery issues. David is a New Orleans native, veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and holds a master’s degree in economic development from the University of Southern Mississippi and a master’s degree from the U.S. Naval War College. He is also a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. He serves on the faculty of Tulane University's Master of Public Administration program and a Tulane leadership academy. In addition, David holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Mississippi Army National Guard, where he is the Commander of 2nd Infantry Training Battalion. David will also complete his doctorate in international economics in 2025.
Phone:
Email: jmaltendorf@alaska.edu
Jereme M. Altendorf joined the University of Alaska Anchorage on October 7, 2024, as the Associate Director for Arctic Programs and Strategy Implementation. Prior to UAA, he spent two years at the Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies as Chief, Director’s Action Team. CDR Altendorf has a bachelor’s in chemistry and environmental science from Creighton University, a master’s in engineering with an emphasis in environmental engineering from the University of Missouri, and an MBA from George Washington University. He is also a Certified Hazardous Material Manager (CHMM) and Project Management Professional (PMP). He has spent more than 20 years working for various agencies of the federal government (EPA, US Coast Guard, Department of the Interior) regulating the actions of the public and private sector as it relates to the handling of hazardous waste; managed million-dollar environmental Superfund and oil spill cleanup projects; assisted in the investigation and prosecution of environmental civil and criminal cases; and responded to all types of oil and chemical spills in rivers, bays, and oceans.
Project Managers
1901 Bragaw Street
Phone: (907) 786-0321
Email: cwilson17@alaska.edu
Cameron Wilson joined the Applied Environmental Research Team in spring of 2020. He completed his M.S. in Civil Engineering at UAA with a project that involved collecting and analyzing Alaska water use data. He designed, built, and programmed custom sensors to accomplish the task and then deployed them in several villages. He is now involved in a variety of projects including coastal GPS surveying and modeling, Pacific salmon studies, forestry, and the identification/eradication of invasive plant species. Originally from North Carolina, he grew up in the earth-moving business and has experience operating heavy equipment and project implementation. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Biological Engineering from NC State focusing on bioprocessing and alternative fuels. Prior to AERC, he worked five years as a field engineer in the west Texas oil fields.
Joseph Cook, CMSgt USAF (Ret) works with multiple facets of AERC including contractual; fiscal operations; and compliance with federal, state, and agency specific regulations. Cook has more than 20 years of management and leadership experience with a proven record for leading dynamic and diverse teams through multifaceted projects towards organizational success. After completing a career in the United Air Force, Cook joined the University of Alaska Anchorage team in 2023. He holds a Master’s in Management with a concentration in Organizational Leadership. He completed his undergraduate Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice.
Research Technicians
Caitlin Kollander was born and raised in Anchorage Alaska. She began work as a participant with AERC in 2019 surveying Tricolored Blackbirds in California and performing bat surveys on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. She continued to participate on a variety of AERC projects while she completed her B.S. in Biological Sciences and Natural Sciences with a minor in Environmental Studies, and then her M.S. in Biological Sciences at UAA. Her master’s thesis, titled "The Virus Ecology of Myotis lucifugus in Southcentral Alaska," explored how bat ecology influences the Alaskan bat virome and likelihood of novel virus emergence from subarctic bats. She joined the AERC team as a research technician in 2023 and assists salmon, forestry, and invasive plant management projects. While Caitlin specializes in bat ecology, she has research experience in a variety of other fields including song- and shorebird, marine mammal, fish, and small and large mammal ecology.
Jacob Hart joined AERC in April of 2022 as its lead forester. Growing up in Wisconsin, Jacob realized his passion for nature through spending much of his free time outdoors and cutting countless cords of firewood. Jacob served in the United State Marine Corps Reserves. He graduated in 2020 from the University of Missouri - Columbia with a B.S. in Forestry and a GIS certificate. Before joining AERC, Jacob worked for the Missouri Department of Conservation in multiple roles and regions gaining experience as a wildlife technician and forester.
Bryson Smith grew up in a military family which brought him to Alaska, where his passion for wildlife conservation began. He graduated from UAA with a B.S. in Biological Sciences in 2022. During his time at UAA he worked on multiple game camera projects in the Goose Lake area, one to spatially track birds, and the other to determine the potential of man-made tree cavities for nesting birds. He joined AERC as a summer participant for the 2022 field season. In 2023, he spent the field season on the Situk River working with Alaska Department of Fish & Game on a weir conducting samples and escapement counts of steelhead and salmon. He rejoined AERC as a research technician in July 2024.
Connor Morrow received a master's degree in environmental conservation from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2025, where he studied the habitat use of black bear, moose, and gray fox in western Massachusetts. Originally from Louisiana, Connor received his B.S. in natural eesource ecology and management from Louisiana State University in 2018. During his time at LSU, he studied abroad in New Zealand, earned numerous academic and philanthropic awards, and completed several professional internships. Over the past eight years, Connor has worked more than 20 wildlife field jobs across 17 states with federal agencies, NGOs, public universities, and state agencies. In his free time, he enjoys spending time outdoors—especially hiking and backpacking.
Kate Gwatkin has always had a deep-rooted passion for environmental work. She graduated from University of North Carolina Wilmington with a B.S. in environmental science, a concentration in conservation, and a minor in geospatial technologies. During her undergraduate career, she conducted research analyzing coastal erosion on hurricane-impacted beaches in southeastern North Carolina. After graduation, she worked in South Africa on marine conservation initiatives and later taught ecology in Maine, experiences that deepened her environmental research skills and her commitment to connecting people with the environments they depend on. Now at the Applied Environmental Research Center, Kate supports research and environmental monitoring on Bellows Air Force Station.
Max Bonini joined AERC in June 2025, contributing to wetland and dune restoration projects in the Puʻewai Wetlands and along the Bellows Air Force Station shoreline. He brings a strong background in habitat restoration, endangered species surveying, and invasive species management across coastal California and the Pacific Northwest. Before joining AERC, Max worked on federal conservation contracts with ManTech International, where he conducted field surveys for sensitive species such as the red-legged frog and Wakei salamander and implemented large-scale native out planting and irrigation systems—including the first of their kind on San Nicolas Island. Max holds a B.S. in environmental science from the University of Portland and has also supported ecological restoration efforts in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Passionate about wetland herpetofauna and native plant ecology, he approaches land stewardship with a practical and field-oriented mindset, grounded in both scientific methodology and hands-on restoration experience.
Jacob Tupper grew up in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma and went on to earn a bachelor's of science in both zoology and computer science at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma. During his time in college, he worked with multiple professors and graduate students on different projects, ranging from vocalization studies on local frog populations to longitudinal heat-shock protein studies in house sparrows. His research presentation won second place at the Karen L. Smith symposium, and he later presented his research on hydrometrid sexual dimorphism data at the 2023 Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology conference in Seattle, Washington. Jacob joined AERC in June 2025 in hopes of contributing his current skills as well as developing new ones.
KayeLea Poirier joined AERC in June 2025, bringing a deep-rooted passion for the outdoors. Originally from Minnesota, her love of nature led her to pursue dual B.S. degrees in biology and environmental science, which she earned in May 2025 from the University of Wisconsin–Superior. While studying, she honed her technical skills as a laboratory technician in a Whole Effluent Toxicity (WET) testing lab and supported plant research as a greenhouse assistant on campus. During the fall semester of her senior year, KayeLea attended the University of Alaska Anchorage as part of the National Student Exchange, where she discovered a strong affinity for Alaska's landscapes and research opportunities. Motivated by this experience, she embraced the opportunity to launch her career in the Last Frontier as a research technician with AERC.
Communications
1901 Bragaw Street
Phone:
Email: jakee@alaska.edu
1901 Bragaw Street
Phone:
Email: jbesl@alaska.edu
Joey joined AERC in 2023. He previously worked in UAA's Advancement office as a writer and served as interim director of communication and marketing at Alaska Pacific University. He has a bachelor’s degree in communication studies from the College of Wooster and a master’s in water security from University of Saskatchewan.
1901 Bragaw Street
Phone: 907-786-1679
Email: lglick@alaska.edu
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