NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - Alaska Regional Collaboration Team

NOAA’s Alaska Regional Collaboration Team

About the Team

The twenty-five NOAA Alaska Regional Collaboration Team members reflect the diversity of NOAA’s presence in the region. The team is comprised of subject matter experts from all five NOAA business lines, the NOAA Corps, and six partner organizations (Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy, Alaska Ocean Observing System, Alaska Sea Grant, Cooperative Institute for Alaska Research, Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, and the West Coast and Polar Regions Undersea Research Center). Team members are located in offices in Juneau, Anchorage, Homer, and Fairbanks as well as three cities outside Alaska (Boulder, CO; Silver Spring, MD; and Asheville, NC).

One of the team’s greatest strengths is the perspective and understanding that comes from working with subject matter experts from different disciplines and different places. The team is dedicated to promoting collaboration across NOAA, and with our stakeholders and partners in the region, to better understand needs for NOAA products and services, and to work on meeting those needs through improved communications, interdisciplinary partnerships and innovative projects.

The team has been active in national and state-wide initiatives including The Alaska Climate Change Sub-Cabinet Immediate Action Working Group, Alaska Climate Change Executive Roundtable, the National Ocean Policy Arctic Priority, North Slope Science Initiative, and both the Arctic and Western Alaska Landscape Conservation Cooperatives. The team also focuses on coastal weather and ecosystem issues as well as integrated ocean and coastal mapping and ocean acidification.

To learn more about the office and labs represented by the Alaska Regional Collaboration Team Members, visit the links associated with their home offices provided below.

Doug Demaster Image

Regional Team Lead:

Dr. Douglas Demaster

Director, Alaska Fisheries Science Center
Juneau, AK

Amy Holman Image

Regional Coordinator:

Amy Holman

Anchorage, AK

NOAA Regional Team Members:

David Christie, Director, Alaska Sea Grant , Director West Coast and Polar Regions Undersea Research Center, and UAF Director, NOAA Kasitsna Bay Laboratory
Paula Cullenberg, Marine Advisory Program leader, Alaska Sea Grant
Steve Davis, Supervisory Biologist, NOAA Fisheries, Alaska Region Office
James Elkins, Group chief, Halocarbons and other Atmospheric Trace Species Group, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory
Matt Gove, Coastal Management Specialist- Alaska, NOAA Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management
Matt Forney, Alaska Navigation Manager, NOAA Office of Coast Survey, National Ocean Service
CAPT Mike Francisco, Director of Operations, NOAA Corps Marine Operations Center - Pacific
Kris Holderied, Director, NOAA Kasitsna Bay Laboratory
Gary Hufford, Senior Scientist, NOAA National Weather Service Alaska Region Environmental and Scientific Services Division
Janet Intrieri, Physical Scientists, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory
John Jensen, Science Planning Officer, NOAA National Climatic Data Center
Pete Jones, Operations Director, Alaska Region, National Marine Fisheries Service
Mark Koehn, Acting Director, NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory
Molly McCammon, Executive Director, Alaska Ocean Observing System
Heather McCullough, Data manager, NOAA National Geodetic Data Center
Don Moore, Decision Support Specialist, National Weather Service Alaska Region Environmental and Scientific Services Division
James Partain, Alaska Region Director, NOAA Climate Services
Carven Scott, Division Chief, National Weather Service Alaska Region Environmental and Scientific Services Division
Susan Sugai, Associate Director, Cooperative Institute For Alaska Research
Terry Thompson, Reserve Manager, Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve
Sarah Trainor, ACCAP Coordinator and Research Scientist, Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy
Dan White, Associate Vice Chancellor, Research, Intellectual Property & Commercialization, University of Alaska Fairbanks
John Whitney, Scientific Support Coordinator, NOAA Office of Response and Restoration

What We Do

NOAA established the Regional Collaboration effort to support integrated, regionally-tailored implementation of NOAA-wide programmatic priorities and provide a more systematic approach to both internal and external communications. NOAA has a responsibility to produce relevant, reliable and timely scientific information to support decision-makers and fulfill its stewardship mandates. Regional Collaboration enables NOAA to achieve this by identifying and applying NOAA’s full range of capabilities, within and across regions to improve our productivity and value to stakeholders.

Regional Teams add value to NOAA’s mission by:

Understanding stakeholder needs,
Understanding NOAA’s capabilities in the region,
Being aware of the activities and capabilities of NOAA’s current and prospective partners,
Synthesizing regional needs and capabilities into a list of achievable and nationally significant priorities, and
Building and maintaining relationships with stakeholders and partners.

Regional Collaboration expands upon existing regional coordination and communication efforts with a shift towards Regional Collaboration, which adds the component of integrating program activities to address NOAA’s priorities at both the national and regional scale. The purpose of regional collaboration is to improve NOAA’s productivity and value to customers, using existing authority and accountability structures.
For more background information on NOAA Alaska Region Collaboration Team (ARCTic), or to find out more about our planned activities, please see our annual operating plan: