A former Olympic cross-country skier is returning to Alaska to lead the Alaska Humanities Forum.

The board in a release has announced that Nina Kemppel will serve as the president and CEO.

She has been with the Coraggio Group, a Portland, Ore., strategy and organizational change company.

Kemppel is a four-time winter Olympian in cross-country. In the 2002 Salt Lake Games, she finished 15th in the 30-kilometer classical race, which at the time was the highest finish for an American woman at the Olympics in the event.

Kemppel also won the Mount Marathon mountain race in Seward nine times, including eight in a row.

She's expected to start Aug. 27 and replaces Greg Kimura. In March, he left the Anchorage organization to lead the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.