Anchorage Daily News

Gov. Sarah Palin recently announced appointments to the Board of Forestry, the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute board of directors and the Alaska State Council on the Arts.

Click to enlarge

Governor Sarah Palin

Story tools

Comment on this story

E-mail a friend

Print

Digg this

Seed Newsvine

Send link via AIM

Font size : A | A | A

Residents of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough were among the Aug. 13 appointees.

The governor appointed Erin McLarnon of Willow, and reappointed Ron Wolfe of Juneau and Rick Rogers and Matthew Cronin, both of Anchorage, to the Board of Forestry. The nine-member board's mission includes advising the governor on state logging and forestry regulations, promoting cooperative resolution of industry-related issues, recommending areas of forestry research, and suggesting improvements to state forestry laws and regulations.

McLarnon fills the seat designated for a recreational organization. Along with her husband, Paul, McLarnon operates Broken Runner Sled Dog Kennel in Willow, which has 42 Alaska huskies.

She works for Powercorp Alaska LLC, a power controls and wind turbine remanufacturer. She earned a bachelor's degree in fisheries science from Sheldon Jackson College in Sitka in 1995.

Palin reappointed Benjamin Brown of Douglas and Theresa Arevgaq John of Bethel, and appointed Gail Niebrugge of Palmer and Aryne Randall of Wasilla to the Alaska State Council on the Arts.

The Council's 11 members are charged with helping enrich the cultural life of the state by encouraging the practice, enjoyment and support of the arts in Alaska, and with serving on panels that award grants to arts programs around the state.

Randall fills a public seat on the council. She serves as a member and former president of the board of directors for Valley Performing Arts.

She works as manager and investment consultant for Wells Fargo and oversees the bank's Wasilla and Glennallen offices. She holds multiple licenses as a securities dealer.

Niebrugge serves as vice-chair of the council. A professional artist known worldwide for her pointillist watercolor depictions of Alaska wildflowers and other natural subjects, Niebrugge is a signature member of the Watercolor USA Honor Society and was the first artist-in-residence for Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.

A five-time winner of the National Diabetes Association's Holiday Art Search, her work has graced hundreds of thousands of Christmas cards sold to raise money for diabetes research, and she has produced seven major commissioned public art works in Alaska. She has a master's degree in illustration from Syracuse University.

Palin appointed Tom McLaughlin and Jack Schultheis of Wasilla, and reappointed Kevin Adams, to the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute board of directors.

The seven-member board includes representatives from the seafood processing and harvesting industries, and works to increase the value of Alaska's seafood resource through promotions in both domestic and overseas markets and provides the industry with food safety and quality assurance training.

Schultheis fills a seat representing small processors with an annual payroll between $50,000 and $2.5 million. A seafood plant manager with extensive experience in the Yukon River fisheries, he is currently logistics and sales manager for Emmonak-based Kwik'Pak Fisheries.

He has previously worked as processing plant manager for 10th & M Seafoods and North Alaska Fisheries, as a rural Alaska fish marketing cooperative manager, and in numerous other seafood industry positions in buying, sales and marketing, and plant management.

Those interested in these and other boards may find additional information, including application instructions, at the Office of Boards and Commissions Web site, at gov.state.ak.us/boards.