Photos: U.S. Attorney Karen Loeffler

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Karen Loeffler on Thursday, Sept. 18, 2014, is United States Attorney for the District of Alaska. She served as a U.S. Assistant Attorney before being appointed to her current position by President Barack Obama in 2009.

It's alright if you've never met Karen Loeffler. Some Alaskans become acquainted with the prominent prosecutor in a federal courtroom, which most of us try and avoid. Chances are you know her face, though, with Loeffler serving as the head of Alaska's federal prosecutor's office and the voice rallying against some of Alaska's most notorious criminals.

She's headed the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Alaska since October 2009, managing attorneys and her administrative duties. In that time, convictions were handed down in federal court for:

• Alaska Peacemakers Militia founder Schaeffer Cox, for his involvement in a murder conspiracy plot of law enforcement and judicial officials;

• Alaska's first known serial killer in decades, Israel Keyes; and

• James Michael Wells, who shot two Coast Guard coworkers in cold blood on a Kodiak Island military base.

When Loeffler isn't putting criminals behind bars with the help of the office's 22 attorneys, she is outside the courtroom doing what many other Alaskans relish. She spends her off time hiking, camping and sea kayaking with friends and family, adhering to a live-hard-play-hard lifestyle many residents aspire to.

She blames her surroundings.

"Like many people who came up here, I fell in love with the state and the endless things to do outside," Loeffler said, sitting in her office at the Fitzgerald Federal Courthouse in downtown Anchorage. "Alaska never ceases to inspire awe in me. It's beautiful. I love Minnesota, but this isn't the Midwest. I rarely go a month here without having some amazing, gorgeous outdoor day."

READ MORE: Alaska's most notorious criminals no match for top federal prosecutor Karen Loeffler