East Anchorage Book Club with Andrew Gray

Send us a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/1875228/open_sms] This episode originally aired in March of 2023. Will Stapp tells of his childhood being raised by his grandparents, going to war in Iraq and moving to Alaska to raise a family and ultimately become a member of the Alaska House of Representatives.

Send us a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/1875228/open_sms] Journalist Tom Hewitt is the former opinions editor of the Anchorage Daily News from 2018 to 2024. He previously was editorial page editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and news director of KTVF and KXDF in Fairbanks. He is currently special assistant to Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Grier Hopkins.  This interview is part of a series regarding the media landscape in Alaska in 2025.

Send us a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/1875228/open_sms] Dr. Mara Kimmel is the Executive Director of the ACLU of Alaska and former first lady of Anchorage. Prior to taking the helm of the ACLU of Alaska [https://www.acluak.org/], She had a long career in Alaska public policy focused on rights and justice in northern communities. She has served on the faculty at the Seattle University School of Law, the University of Alaska Anchorage and Alaska Pacific University. Most relevant to our conversation today, Dr. Kimmel worked for over a decade as an immigration attorney and as an advocate for tribal subsistence rights. In her role as first lady of Anchorage, as wife to Mayor Ethan Berkowitz, she led the development of Welcoming and Resilience initiatives at the Municipality of Anchorage.  She serves on the national board of directors for Welcoming America, the regional advisory board for the Anti-Defamation League, and is a board member and co-founder of the Alaska Institute for Justice. Mara received her law degree from the University of Minnesota School of Law and her Master’s degree in Natural Resource Management at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She earned her PhD in Environmental Science and Policy from Central European University in Budapest in 2014.   To listen to the Alaska State House Judiciary Committee hearing on ICE detainees in DOC custody, click here. [https://www.ktoo.org/gavel/video/?clientID=2147483647&eventID=2025061008]

Send us a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/1875228/open_sms] Rose O’Hara-Jolley is the Alaska State Director for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates. Planned Parenthood is a network of 600 health clinics across the country -- Alaska has two (one in Fairbanks and one in Anchorage) --  that provide reproductive and sexual health care including birth control, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, cancer screenings, well-woman exams and mental health care.  Planned Parenthood is the only provider of abortions in Alaska. Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates is separate from the health care clinics; it is an advocacy organization tasked with keeping the Planned Parenthood clinics open and accessible. As head of that organization, Rose directs all of their advocacy including legislative lobbying, electoral engagement, endorsed candidate programming, local organizing, and youth leadership development.

Send us a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/1875228/open_sms]  JJ Harrier is the 2025 chair of the Anchorage Pride Parade. After a childhood in Girdwood, he traveled around the lower 48 and Europe trying to find himself ultimately ending up homeless on the streets of Portland in his early 30s. His mother got him into rehab in Alaska and from there his life took a different direction. JJ is the former Vice President of Marketing for the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce, the former Director of Development for Alaska Addiction Rehabilitation Services at Nugent’s Ranch, and is currently the Director of Development at Denali Family Services.