Jana Pausauraq Harcharek
Coordinator, Bilingual/Multicultural Department

Jana was raised in Barrow by her grandparents Ned and Faye Nusunginya and her parents the late Robert, Jr. and Sally Nusunginya Brower. They taught her the importance of language, which she has integrated into her professional life. Jana has more recently worked for Ukpeagvik Inupiat Corporation and the North Slope Borough Commission on Inupiat History, Language and Culture. In 1995 she was one of five recipients of the National Museum of the American Indian Art and Cultural Achievement Award for her work in culture and language. She came to work for the North Slope Borough School District in 2000 as the coordinator for the Bilingual and Multicultural Instruction Department. Jana says  "As indigenous people we struggle to maintain the vitality of our language against very powerful assimilationist attitudes. Our very identity, our worldview, the expression of who we are as Native people hangs in the balance. It is critical for us to come together as a community of Native language speakers and very seriously begin taking responsibility for passing it on."

Arlene Glenn
Resource Specialist

Arlene (left of her daughter) was born and raised in Barrow by her parents the late Frankie Sr. and Jeanette Akpik (former Inupiat Language Teacher). Arlene is a full time mother to 4 girls and part-time college student through Ilisagvik College and UAF studying towards a Bachelors Degree.  She began working part-time for the North Slope Borough School District in December 2003 to assist in curriculum development on projects needing culturally relevant information for the Alaska Native Education Program.  In the past she has worked at the North Slope Borough Commission on Inupiat History, Language and Culture in various capacities for about 13 years in projects whose goal was to gather, organize and disseminate Inupiaq history, language & culture.  Arlene says "It is rewarding to be a part of a program that is incorporating our own language and culture into the classrooms of our North Slope schools.  This makes us stronger and proud of who we are and where we come from.

Patricia H. Partnow
Curriculum Developer

Pat was raised in a Marine Corps family "all over the United States," and so had no hometown as a child.  She earned an BA in Anthropology from Brown University and an MA in Anthropology from Northwestern University.  After moving to Alaska in 1971, she worked for museums, school districts, and cultural centers developing educational materials with a focus on Alaska Native cultures and Alaska history.  Pat has two grown children, one in law school and the other in veterinary school, and two exchange student children, one from Switzerland, the other Denmark.  She lives in Anchorage.

In 1989 Pat returned to college for her doctorate, earning a Ph.D. in Anthropology from UAF in 1993.  Since then she has worked on contract for a number of institutions, and now serves as Curriculum Developer for ANEP.  She says about the project, "the staff is incredibly knowledgeable and talented and the vision of integrating Inupiaq culture, history, and language into the school curriculum is exciting and vital.  We can make a real difference through this project.   I'm proud to be part of it."

Grant Spearman
Curriculum Developer

Grant Spearman is curator of the Simon Paneak Memorial Museum located in the Nunamiut Inupiat village of Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska.  Originally trained as an archaeologist, he has worked and lived in northern Alaska for nearly 30 years, since obtaining his Bachelors degree in Anthropology from the University of Washington. Since 1978 Anaktuvuk Pass has been his home, refurbishing and living in the last traditional sod house on the North Slope.

Grant has worked intensively with village elders in recording hundreds of hours of taped ethnographic interviews pertaining to their history, culture, territories, land use and subsistence practices, traditional, technologies, skills, and practices and details of day to day life as it was lived in the years around 1900.  Many of these materials form the rich and textured reservoir of information which are used to develop the displays at the Paneak Museum and are being drawn upon to develop educational materials for the Alaska Native Education Project.

Richard Nelson
Writer/Author

Richard Nelson work focuses on human relationships to the natural world.  He was born in Madison, Wisconsin, attended the University of Wisconsin, and received a doctorate in anthropology from the University of California, Santa Barbara.  He spent many years studying the connections between people and nature in Alaskan Eskimo and Athabaskan Indian villages.  Based on these experiences he wrote Hunters of the Northern Ice, Hunters of the Northern Forest, Shadow of the Hunter, Make Prayers to the Raven, and The Athabaskans.  He was Associate Producer and Writer for an award winning Public Television series about Koyukon Indian life, titled "Make Prayers to the Raven," narrated by Barry Lopez.

Nelson's work has appeared in Life, Harpers, Outside, Sports Afield, Orion, Audubon, Wilderness, Pacific Discovery, Northern Lights, Parabola, The Los Angeles Times, and numerous anthologies. 

Nelson travels widely giving readings from his work, speaking at conferences, and visiting campuses.  At colleges and universities, he lectures and meets with classes in environmental studies, writing and literature, natural sciences, and anthropology. 

Nelson's life centers around wildlife watching, hiking, surfing, kayaking, subsistence hunting and fishing, and camping in the wildlands and waterways near his home in southeastern Alaska.