We have a range of opportunities for technical college, undergraduate, and graduate students to contribute to AAOKH activities, including conducting independent research with AAOKH observations or data. We also support early-career post-doctoral researchers.
Elizabeth Mik’aq Lindley is a PhD candidate in the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at UAF and a Graduate Fellow with the Tamamta program.
She is Yup’ik from Bethel, and is very excited to be working with AAOKH. Growing up on the Kuskokwim River, Pacific salmon have always been a very important part of her life, which is why she's chosen to study salmon during her graduate program. The Arctic, ranging from Alaska’s North Slope to Canada’s Northwest Arctic, is seeing more salmon than ever before. There are many questions about the increasing number of Alaskan salmon moving into Arctic waters, which is what her research focuses on.
Through her work with AAOKH, Mik' hopes to better understand salmon in Alaska’s Arctic, both in their ecology and how communities may perceive salmon trends. It’s important to her to shape her work in part by the values and priorities of communities that are experiencing Arctic changes first-hand.
Some communities may rely on salmon as a traditional subsistence species, and others may not—some communities may not really care for them. Whether or not salmon are an important species to you, Mik' would love to hear about your salmon observations and any questions or concerns you might have. This will help in getting a more holistic understanding of Alaska’s salmon and help her in capturing your values and priorities in her work.
Maeghan Connor is a Master's student pursuing a Biology and Wildlife degree at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Originally from New Hampshire, Maeghan has spent the summers working in Alaska since 2020. Her time in Alaska and various experiences working with marine mammals have shaped her research interests, which include further understanding the impacts of climate-induced ecological change on marine mammals in the Arctic.
Her Master’s project funded by Alaska Sea Grant, Maeghan will be continuing previous research on spotted seal ecology in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas with Donna Hauser, Andrew Von Duyke, and others from the North Slope Borough Department of Wildlife Management. Her work will assess how environmental conditions impact spotted seal terrestrial haulout behavior and test the feasibility of small drones to survey seals. To contextualize and broaden our understanding of spotted seal haulout behavior, Maeghan plans to weave results with local environmental observations from Utqiaġvik AAOKH observers Billy Adams and Joe Leavitt. Check out some drone imagery of spotted seals that Maeghan captured during summer 2024!
Maya Russin grew up in Mountain Village and Nunam Iqua, two communities along the Lower Yukon River in Western Alaska, and graduated from high school in Cordova. Starting in 2025, she is pursuing a Master’s of Science in Fisheries at UAF with co-advisors Drs. Donna Hauser and Andrew Seitz.
Maya shared: “The mix of river and ocean systems I grew up around shaped how I see the connection between fisheries, people, and community health, which is something I’ve always been curious about, I just never knew that I could study it until I came to UAF. For my master’s project, I’ll be working with previous AAOKH data from Kotzebue, using under-ice CTD data alongside knowledge and observations shared by Bobby Schaeffer to better understand how climate change may be impacting key subsistence species. I’m excited to begin this work as it reflects the values and questions that brought me into fisheries science in the first place.”
Former Students and Early-Career Researchers
Roberta Tuurraq Glenn completed her Master of Science degree in Geography at UAF in 2022, with a focus on community-based monitoring and documenting change in support of local priorities. Part of her thesis involved creating a StoryMap about AAOKH observations. We are thrilled that she decided to stay on with AAOKH after graduation!
Kimberly Kivvaq Pikok earned a Master of Science degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from UAF in 2024, also as a Graduate Fellow in the Tamamta program. Her thesis was titled, “Centering community and joy through co-production: Tracking the seasonal changes of Utqiaġvik’s spring whaling”. Learn more about Kim’s thesis and watch a film she produced with her brother Lloyd Pikok, Jr. titled, “It’s All About the Happy People: Sea Ice and Whaling on Alaska’s North Coast.”
She loves to spend time at her family’s cabin up in Utqiaġvik because she enjoys learning about the land, vegetation, and wildlife from her dad and brother. Her love for learning about natural processes made her interested in outreach and environmental education and hopes to encourage more Indigenous youth to be involved in STEM programs and careers. Since graduation, Kim has taken on new adventures as an Iñupiat language and North Slope Science teacher at Barrow High School.
Peter Lowe is from the southwestern Yup’ik village Togiak, Alaska and is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology at UAF. He worked with AAOKH during summer 2025 as part of an ANSEP internship supported by the Alaska Ocean Observing System.
He shared: “Being from a rural village, I have seen the lack of resources available in rural communities in Alaska for mental health and substance abuse. It is my career and life goal to work towards getting more funding and resources for rural communities in these areas. In my internship with AAOKH, I hope to learn from observations and about different approaches to Indigenous-focused research that involve Elders, youth, and community members throughout the research process. A culturally-inclusive and community-collaborative approach is something I want to establish in my own work.”
Lease Paton (he/they) is a University of Alaska Anchorage undergraduate student who worked with AAOKH in collaboration with Alaska Ocean Observing Systems (AOOS) during 2024-2025. Lease helped update AAOKH’s database of community observations, contributed to community outreach events, and conducted an analysis on AAOKH observations looking at changes in wind direction and intensity.
Dr. Alexandra Ravelo was a postdoctoral fellow with the AAOKH science team from 2022-2024. She's a marine ecologist specializing in invertebrate community ecology and nearshore ecosystems. Her work with AAOKH focused on restructuring the AAOKH observing database. She has continued to partner with AAOKH in the development of curriculum for K-12 learners.