Associates
Sierra
Fletcher – Project
Manager
Sierra Fletcher has worked on consensus-building and environmental projects for over eight years in the US and overseas, including Alaska, Cambodia, the Middle East, New England, and the Maritimes. She has researched, written, and edited reports and other documents related to energy-environment issues, including oil spill prevention, dissemination of renewable energy technologies, and impacts of hydroelectric dams on subsistence communities. In recent work with Nuka Research, she helped research and draft a paper on oil spill impacts in arctic waters and researched the regulatory history of tugs approved for use in Prince William Sound.
Sierra has conducted youth workshops in Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, and Jerusalem; worked in the Washington, DC office of an international renewable energy and energy efficiency consulting firm; convened Arab and Jewish environmental professionals from the Middle East; managed a ropes course for youth from international conflict areas; helped start an advocacy organization focused on national security issues; and spent five summers teaching environmental education in her hometown in Maine.
Sierra completed a Master's in Law and Diplomacy at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, where she focused on environmental policy and conflict resolution. She has a B.A. in Anthropology from Yale University. She also studied Managing Participatory Processes at Harvard University's Program on Negotiation.
When she is not globe-trotting, Sierra works from our Plymouth, Massachusetts office, although she never hesitates to visit our Alaska offices, especially in the summer.
Allison Miller – Project Assistant/Data
Management Specialist
Allison Miller was born, raised, and educated in Alaska. With a Bachelor's of Arts degree in Creative Writing and a minor in Natural Resources Management from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, she moved back to her hometown of Seldovia, Alaska looking for a cocoon to nurture her writing. Before joining the Nuka team, she co-edited and published a local newsletter, Loose Lips, which enjoy a fairly lively, albeit short success. While constantly on the lookout for project work that will allow her to apply her creative flair, she has proven an invaluable member of the Nuka team in a variety of projects and field work. Allison's considerable talents include data management and analysis, technical writing, and the innovative use of computer applications in environmental planning projects. She has been the Nuka project lead for the Alaska Oil Spill Permits Tool and the Geographical Response Information Network, as well as authoring the M/V Selendang Ayu Oil Spill Fisheries Water Quality Sampling Summary of Results. She is presently working on several municipal Emergency Operations Plans.
Mark Janes – Project Assistant/Mapping
Specialist
In 2002, Mark joined the team at Nuka Research as a project assistant and mapping specialist. Prior to this, he graduated from the University of Texas-Austin in 1989 and spent 12 years working in Community Mental Health Centers in Colorado and Alaska providing case management and mental health services. He found that much of the discipline and skills used in social work transferred well to managing and completing projects in the environmental field.
Mark has always loved maps, and it was the cartography that first drew him to Alaska. He continues to obtain additional training and education in mapping and geographic information systems. In addition to mapping, Mark has done extensive field survey and design work in the development of the State of Alaska’s Geographic Response Strategies and the Potential Places of Refuge Projects. He especially enjoys these field visits, which involve traveling via small research vessels to some of the most environmentally sensitive and beautiful coastal waters in Alaska.
Mark lives outside Seldovia, Alaska with his wife and son in a small cabin overlooking Kachemak Bay and the Kenai Mountains. He is so taken with the Alaskan coastline, that he recently purchased and is refurbishing a 1964 Cal30 sailboat. Now if he only knew how to sail...
Kathleen George – Graphic Artist
Kathleen graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1982 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Animal Science. Her concern for the natural world and wildlife has guided her in her journey as she moved from New Hampshire to Alaska in 1991 to continue her work with The Nature Conservancy.
Although her career as a graphic artist began many years before in Virginia, it was in Alaska where her business began to thrive. In addition to working with Nuka Research as the resident graphic artist since 2001, she continues to pursue her other career as a watercolor artist, painting the Alaska landscape with an eye on its ever-changing surroundings. She promises us she will soon create a website to showcase her considerable talents.
Amy Gilson - Research Assistant
Originally from Minnesota, Amy fell in love with Alaska in 1996 while working at a salmon processing plant hoping to earn study abroad funds to complete degrees in Elementary Education and Spanish. It was a taste for adventure and travel that lead her back to Alaska the following summer and it has been home for her since.
A ‘Bio-Sherpa’ at heart, from 1999-2005 Amy was a Fish and Wildlife Field Technician for the Alaska Department of Fish & Game, living and working in remote locations across the state, collecting commercial fishery and research data for both salmon and crab. She moved to Seldovia permanently in 2005 and began working with Nuka Research in January of 2006. Amy brings valuable data collection and management skills to the Nuka Research team and has applied them to several in-house administrative and bookkeeping projects, as well as client projects involving data compilation and analysis and geo-referencing of Nuka’s considerable library of aerial photographs.
Still not quite out of the field, Amy and her partner have been living in a wall tent on their property outside of Seldovia, milling their own trees for building material.
Katie Wright – Information Management and Communications Specialist
Katie Wright joined Nuka Research at its inception and has designed and created outreach materials and business development programs, including designing this website. Katie wears a number of hats at Nuka Research, working behind the scenes as occasional webmaster, copy editor, and information manager. She helps to build and maintain the information flow, data management, and internal organization so that our technical staff can focus on client needs and project management. Katie uses her background in instructional design and e-learning to ensure that our training programs and applications are objective-based and educationally sound. A mother of three young children, Katie’s personal experience managing household chaos translates well to keeping our Nuka home in order.
Before joining Nuka Research, Katie worked as an Organization and Development Team Leader at IDX Systems, where she created an online learning academy. She has a B.S. in Elementary Education from the University of Rhode Island and a Master’s in Education (Technology in Education) from Lesley University. Katie works part time from our Plymouth, Massachusetts office.