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Senator Donald Olson is Inupiaq from Golovin. Lifelong Alaskan, Senator Olson was born in Nome and is a doctor, pilot, reindeer herder, businessman and Legislator. He and wife Willow have four children: Colby, Martin, Donald Jr.and Maggie Rae.

Counceller, of Kodiak, is an assistant professor of Alutiiq language and culture at Kodiak College. She is active in language preservation efforts, serving as a member of the Cultural Survival Inc. Native American Language Advisory Panel, the Qik’rtarmiut Alutiit Regional Language Advisory Committee, the Alaska Anthropological Association Board of Directors, the Alutiiq New Words Council, and the Koniag Inc. Board of Directors. She has also received the Harry S. Truman Scholar, Leadership and Public Service Award from the Truman Foundation. Counceller holds a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and American civilization from Brown University, a master’s degree in rural development from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and a Ph.D. in language planning and Indigenous knowledge systems from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Evans Smith, of Anchorage, is the Alaska Native Heritage Center President and CEO, where she has worked in several roles since 2003. Under her leadership, the center has initiated a statewide language summit, two pilot language immersion camps, language circles, and a study to identify Alaska Native language programs and learners of Alaska Native languages. The Center's hope is to connect Alaska Native residents in Anchorage to the language programs that exist across Alaska. Her prior work involves service with Southcentral Foundation and The Northern Forum. She holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Stanford University and is also a trustee with the Western States Arts Federation. Evans Smith is actively learning the Yup’ik language through her grandmother and more recently Denaakk'e (Koyukon Athabascan) from teachers Susan Paskvan, Eliza Jones, and Esther McCarty.

Charles, of Fairbanks, is an associate professor of Yup’ik Eskimo at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). He grew up in Emmonak speaking Yup’ik before earning a bachelor’s degree in elementary education at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, a master’s degree in education at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and a Ph.D. in applied linguistics at UAF. His research interests are second language acquisition, dynamic assessment, and socio-cultural theory. As a native speaker of Yugtun, one of his primary interests is to maintain his language through teaching it at educational levels.

Xh’unei, Lance A. Twitchell, is associate professor of Alaska Native Languages at the University of Alaska Southeast.

Yaayuk, of Nome, is the Kawerak Inc. Eskimo Heritage Program Director, and an Inupiaq instructor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Northwest Campus. She has also worked as an Alaska Native education coordinator and classroom teacher, and as a teaching mentor with the Alaska Statewide Mentoring Project. She also is a member of the King Island Drummers & Dance Group and a former member of the King Island Traditional Council. Alvanna-Stimpfle holds a master’s degree in education and a bachelor’s degree in Inupiaq Eskimo language from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.