Kenai Peninsula College: Around Campus

  • By Suzie Kendrick
  • Sunday, September 13, 2015 7:27pm
  • NewsSchools

KPC administrator chosen as Sitka’s campus director

Dr. Paula Martin has served as the assistant director for academic affairs and as an associate professor at Kenai Peninsula College since 2008. She was recently chosen to lead the University of Alaska Southeast Sitka campus.

As the new campus director, Martin is expected to take her extensive experiences while serving in her role at KPC and provide excellent leadership for the Sitka campus. A major accomplishment Martin achieved while at KPC was to spearhead the development of both online and hybrid classes, in a variety of disciplines, that ultimately led to expansion of the college’s course offerings.

Dr. Cheryl Siemers, KPC associate professor of English, will be assuming the role of assistant director for academic affairs. Siemers joined the KPC faculty as an assistant professor of English in 2008 and went on to become the department chair of English and liberal studies from 2010-2014.

KPC staff member selected to contribute to publication

Dave Atcheson, night coordinator and an adjunct faculty member at the Kenai River Campus, has been selected as one of six Alaskan authors to work on a new book, entitled “Where Water is Gold: Life and Livelihood in Alaska’s Bristol Bay.” The book, based on 2011 fieldwork done in the region by Anchorage photographer Carl Johnson, is primarily photos, but will include essays that explore various aspects of the western Alaska watershed. The book is set for release in 2016 and is being published by Braided River.

Johnson has a long history documenting the natural beauty of national parks and wilderness areas. He is a past recipient of a Rasmuson Foundation Artist Fellowship and has received the Environmental Issues Award from Windland Smith Rice International.

The other authors selected for the project include Bill Sherwonit, Erin McKittrick, Nick Jans, Anne Coray and Steve Kahn. Together the authors’ essays will provide an overview of the Bristol Bay region to include discussions about the rural lifestyle, subsistence values, and the importance of commercial fishing, recreational tourism and the mineral claims in the area.

Atcheson is the author of “Dead Reckoning: Navigating a Life on the Last Frontier, Courting Tragedy on Its High Seas,” “Hidden Alaska: Bristol Bay and Beyond” and “Fishing Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula” as well as many other works published in a variety of publications including Alaska Magazine, Outdoor Life and served as a past contributing editor for Fish Alaska Magazine.

Kenai River Campus new faculty spotlight

Dr. Casey Rudkin has been hired as KRC’s new assistant professor of English and has replaced Janice High who recently retired. Rudkin holds a doctorate in rhetoric and technical communication from Michigan Technological University; a master’s in composition and rhetoric; master’s certificate in literature from University of Akron; bachelors in journalism from Oakland University and an associate’s in English from Lansing Community College.

Rudkin’s previous employment experience includes assistant professor, graduate director and coordinator of writing tracks at Western Connecticut State; assistant professor at Lake Superior State University; instructor at Michigan Technological University; assistant professor at Temple University; assistant to the director of graduate teaching instruction, chemistry writing tutor and graduate teaching instructor at Michigan Technological University; adjunct instructor at University of Akron and graduate teaching assistant at University of Akron.

This semester Rudkin is teaching two sections of introduction to composition and three sections of fundamentals of oral communication.

 

This column is provided by Suzie Kendrick, Advancement Programs Manager at Kenai Peninsula College.

More in News

Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly Candidate Bill Elam waves signs on election day on Tuesday, Oct 3, 2023, in Soldotna, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
Voters take to the polls during Tuesday municipal election

Poll workers report low turnout across the central peninsula

Some of the pumpkins submitted to the pumpkin-decorating contest are seen here during the 5th annual Kenai Fall Pumpkin Festival in Kenai, Alaska, on Oct. 10, 2020. (Photo by Brian Mazurek/Peninsula Clarion file)
Kenai’s Fall Pumpkin Fest set for Saturday

The fun actually starts early, as a central element of the festival is a pumpkin decorating contest already underway

Aurora Borealis Charter School Art and Music Teacher Eleanor Van Sickle leads students in a performance of "Autumn Canon," a Hungarian song at a meeting of the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board of Education meeting on Monday, Oct. 2, 2023 in Soldotna, Alaska. (Ashlyn O'Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
Student serenade

Aurora Borealis Charter School students sing at the assembly during the regular school board meeting on Monday

Bear 747, defending Fat Bear Week Champion, stands on the bank of the Brooks River in Katmai National Park, Alaska. The winner of a Thursday matchup between Bear 128 Grazer and Bear 151 Walker will meet 747 in Fat Bear Week competition on Saturday. (Photo courtesy C. Cravatta/National Park Service)
Survival of the fattest

Paunchy ursine competitors go head-to-head in annual Fat Bear Week

Soldotna Elementary School Principal Dr. Austin Stevenson walks amid natural gas pipes anchored to the outside of school on Friday, Sept. 30, 2022, in Soldotna, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
High costs stall work on school bond

A cost estimate for the reconstruction of Soldotna Elementary School came back $13.5 million over budget

(City of Seward)
Police standoff closes Seward Highway

Police say standoff was with ‘barricaded individual,’ not escaped inmate

Mount Redoubt can be seen across Cook Inlet from North Kenai Beach on Thursday, July 2, 2022. (Photo by Erin Thompson/Peninsula Clarion)
Alaska not included in feds’ proposed 5-year oil and gas program

The plan includes a historically low number of proposed sales

A copy of "People, Paths, and Places: The Frontier History of Moose Pass, Alaska" stands in sunlight in Soldotna, Alaska, on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Moose Pass to receive award for community historical effort

“People, Paths, and Places: The Frontier History of Moose Pass, Alaska” was a collaboration among community members

Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board Member Debbie Cary speaks during a meeting of the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly on Tuesday, April 5, 2022, in Soldotna, Alaska. Cary also served on the borough’s reapportionment board. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
School board president receives award for meritorious service

Debbie Cary, of Ninilchik, is the Alaska Superintendent Association’s 2024 recipient of the Don MacKinnon Excellence in Education Award

Most Read