Anchorage Daily News

Kathleen Ahern-Karnes came to UAA five years ago with the most modest back-to-school wardrobe imaginable: two pairs of sweatpants, two sweatshirts and a T-shirt.

When she picked up her diploma Sunday, she was among the school's best-dressed: Draped around the neck of her black graduation gown were three colorful honor cords -- one for leadership, one for academics and one for excellence in economic studies.

She could have accessorized even more if there were an award for perseverance, because when it comes to overcoming obstacles, Ahern-Karnes, 50, is near the front of the class.

Her four-page resume is packed with achievements, from the bachelor's degree she just earned in marketing and economics, to the internship she spent in Geneva, Switzerland, with a delegate to the United Nations, to the endless list of leadership positions she has held in academic and service organizations.

Absent from the resume are the challenges she has faced, although if you read between the lines, there are some hints.

There's the six-year gap in employment beginning in 2000, when her 10-year career as a surveyor in California ended.

There's the list of scholarships, which includes one from Bean's Cafe.

There's the recap of volunteer work, which includes monthly motivational talks at the Brother Francis Shelter.

Those are clues that Ahern-Karnes is a survivor.

She survived a car accident almost nine years ago that left her with a traumatic brain injury, unable to perform the tasks required by her job. She survived homelessness that left her with no address except the Brother Francis Shelter and, before that, a shelter in Santa Monica, Calif. These days she manages to thrive, even though she doesn't have much more money now than when she was homeless.

"I'm destitute," she said last week after a ceremony at which she was named UAA's Student Leader of the Year.

Yet she came dressed for the occasion in a cream-colored Italian silk suit.

She bought it at a yard sale for $5.

GUIDED BY HOPE

Ahern-Karnes is a big woman with a big voice and a big, take-charge personality.

"Make sure this story is about hope, and about staying positive," she said during an interview. "Make sure it says what great people there are here in Alaska. Did I write that down somewhere for you?"

John Gregoire, UAA's assistant director of student leadership, said Ahern-Karnes has unlimited energy and an irrepressible desire to get involved and get ahead.

"She's omnipresent," he said. "She's everywhere."

When a ceremony was held at UAA last week to announce Conoco Phillips' $15 million donation to the school, Ahern-Karnes showed up to pass out copies of her resume to every oil executive in the crowd.

When she applied to be the commencement speaker for the Class of 2008, she asked UAA chancellor Fran Ulmer for a letter of recommendation. Ulmer declined, saying it would be unfair for her to support one candidate over another. Ahern-Karnes still managed to become one of three finalists for the honor.

She doesn't let anything come between her and her ambitions.

And so when she came to Anchorage back in 2000, when her brain still wasn't working right and simple tasks continued to tax her, she didn't let a doctor's dire prediction dash her dream of going to college.

Ahern-Karnes had been here only a few weeks when she used her Medicaid benefits to see a doctor about her head injury.

"He told me my IQ was 80 and I'd never regain my cognitive abilities. He told me there was no hope," she said. "I went to a field behind Brother Francis and I cursed for 10 minutes. Then I asked God to clear a path for me."

The path Ahern-Karns followed led to subsidized housing at a Spenard apartment building, where she's now the resident manager. It led to a teacher who agreed to tutor her in math for free. Then it led to UAA's College Preparatory and Developmental Studies program, where she spent a year filling her brain with knowledge that had vanished because of her injury.

"I relearned everything from basic algebra up to calculus," she said.

She graduated Sunday with a bachelor's degree in economics and marketing and will return to UAA this fall to begin work on an MBA.

"Nobody is going to tell me you cannot do something," she said.

STARTING OVER

Ahern-Karnes' world started to crumble in January 2000 when she hurt her head in a car accident in Malibu, Calif. She was hospitalized for a month, and when she got out, she returned to an apartment that had been robbed of nearly all its possessions.

The brain injury left her unable to perform the tasks of her job. It left her unable to do basic math. In no time she was unemployed and too broke to pay rent.

She landed at a homeless shelter in Santa Monica, Calif. There she hatched a plan to come to Alaska, a place she dreamed of while growing up in Iowa and reading books like "White Fang."

A friend gave her a plane ticket to Anchorage. She arrived in April 2000 with dreams of going to UAA and little else.

"I came with only the clothes on my back," she said.

She lived at the Brother Francis Shelter for three or four months and went on to became one of the shelter's success stories. She was profiled in its April 2005 newsletter, which noted that when she received her first Permanent Fund Dividend as an Alaska resident, she donated $150 to the shelter.

Almost every month, she returns to Brother Francis to deliver motivational speeches. She wants to show people there that being homeless doesn't mean being hopeless.

"I tell them I scrubbed the toilets and I scrubbed the floors just like they do. I tell them I cleaned the mattresses with Clorox and scrubbed the showers like they do. I tell them I have walked where they're walking today," she said. "I believe it will help someone out there. I believe it will give them the hope to persevere."

Ahern-Karnes wants everyone to know that what happened to her can happen to them. She wants the homeless to know there is hope. She wants the prosperous to know life can change in a heartbeat.

"The majority of the population is one or two paychecks away from being in a homeless shelter," Ahern-Karnes said. "I am someone who could be your sister, your aunt, your niece.

"That's why people should donate to the Food Bank and to the homeless shelter. Because some day, it could be them."

Find Beth Bragg online at adn.com/contact/bbragg or call 257-4309.

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