Alumni
News
Briefs
a difference
$342k+ RAISED ON GIVING DAY 2023
UAA earns gold distinction as Military Friendly School
Seven UAA alumni named Top Forty Under 40 in 2023
Bernie’s Pharmacy helps educate Alaska pharmacists for fifth year
UAA researchers use machine learning to debunk COVID-19 misinformation
UAA earns gold distinction as Military Friendly School
Approximately 18% of UAA students are active-duty military, National Guard and Reserve personnel, veterans or their immediate family members. The MVSS office serves as a key resource center, and hub for the veteran community at UAA, but efforts to make UAA accessible and welcoming extend across campus, from orientation to graduation and beyond.
Recognizing how important a strong start is, MVSS recently partnered with New Student Orientation to better connect with military-connected students that’s set to roll out this summer. These specialized sessions include one-on-one time with MVSS staff, an overview of military education benefits, the application process, and connecting student-veterans to university resources.
To help with affordability, UAA offers a reduced military tuition rate that caps undergraduate tuition and student fees at $250 per credit. For students using military tuition assistance, the reduced rate significantly curtails out-of-pocket expenses. Military and veteran students are also eligible to apply for additional scholarships from UAA’s Office of Financial Aid, such as Seawolf Start and Persist or 49th Finishers, without negatively impacting their service-related tuition benefits.
As part of its commitment to serving military and veteran students, UAA offers resources, courses and proctoring services through two locations on Joint Base Elmendorf/Richardson.
In addition to expanded in-person offerings on base and a resource center on the Anchorage campus, the university continually works to improve the experience for students taking online courses across the University of Alaska system. UAA’s MVSS staff frequently collaborate with colleagues at UAA’s community campuses, as well as UAF and UAS, to streamline the student experience, regardless of home campus.
MVSS regularly facilitates Seawolf Boot Camp sessions to help faculty and staff better support military and veteran students and grow the military culture on campus. The one-hour training includes an overview of the military and veteran student experience, military culture, VA benefits and available resources, along with ample time for questions.
The annual Military Friendly Schools list rates institutions on their ability to meet thresholds across six categories, including admissions, student support, culture, financial aid and career outcomes. UAA exceeded the benchmark standard in all categories to earn top honors. Among the 1,800 schools that participated in the 2023-24 survey, UAA is one of only 250 selected for gold award status for “leading practices, outcomes and effective programs.”
Bernie’s Pharmacy helps educate Alaska pharmacists for fifth year
Bernie’s Pharmacy is an Alaskan-owned, independent pharmacy in Anchorage, founded in 1980 by life-long Alaskan, Bernie Klouda. Over the years, Bernie provided the opportunity for pharmacy students to complete their intern rotations at Bernie’s Pharmacy, mentoring many pharmacy students and new pharmacists. Bernie had a long and distinguished career, and he believed strongly that educating pharmacists was important to ensure the health of Alaskans.
He passed away in 2015, and his wife, Terri Hall Klouda, now operates Bernie’s Pharmacy and helps carry on Bernie’s passion and legacy through the Klouda Foundation.
The Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development reports that there are at least 20 new vacant pharmacist positions annually throughout the state, and projects an additional four percent growth in pharmacist positions by 2028. Providers in Alaska frequently resort to hiring pharmacists outside of Alaska, driving up their costs to cover incentive bonuses and relocation fees. These extra expenses often repeat for the same position in a short period, as outside recruits typically leave Alaska within two years.
The pharmacy program at Idaho State University is one of the premier pharmacy programs in the country with a 102-year history. In 2015, the University of Alaska Anchorage partnered with ISU to establish an Alaska-based campus for ISU’s pharmacy program as a way for Alaskans to earn a Doctor of Pharmacy degree without leaving Alaska. The program enrolls up to 15 new students every semester, resulting in an active cohort of 60 students pursuing a degree annually. The first cohort of students graduated in 2020. All secured employment in the state or entered residency programs with plans to return upon completion.
A formal check presentation took place on Feb. 13 at Bernie’s Pharmacy.
$324k+ RAISED ON GIVING DAY 2023
UAA earns gold distinction as Military Friendly School
Seven UAA alumni named Top Forty Under 40 in 2023
Bernie’s Pharmacy helps educate Alaska pharmacists for fifth year
UAA researchers use machine learning to debunk COVID-19 misinformation
Thank you for raising $324K+ on Giving Day 2023
UAA received more than $324,000 in donations from over 980 donors representing at least 43 states and 250 UAA champions helped spread the word about Giving Day. Social media was flooded with green and gold for more than two full days as UAA colleges, community campuses, student groups, student-athletes and community members spread the word about Giving Day.
Seven UAA alumni named Top Forty Under 40 in 2023
Congratulations to all awardees, including the following six Seawolf alumni (and one faculty member) who made this year’s list:
Maria Bourne (37), B.B.A. Accounting ’06, CEO and President, Denali Universal Services
Dr. Sara Buckingham (34), Associate Professor of Psychology, UAA Department of Psychology
Joshua Franks (39), A.A. General Program ’13, Chief of Staff, Cook Inlet Tribal Council
Lauren Johnson (31), B.B.A. Management ’16, Executive Director and President, Chugach Heritage Foundation
Jeff Landfield (38), B.A. History ’09, Owner and Publisher, Alaska Landmine and Alaska Political Report; Co-Owner, Tudor Road Studios
Serena Nesteby (33), B.S.W. Social Work ’12, Advancement Officer, Ilisagvik College
Megan Piper (34), B.S. Nursing Science ’12, Director of Service Operations Center, Providence Alaska Medical Center
Michael Rhodes (35), B.S. Civil Engineering ’11, Manager of Engineering and Planning, Municipality of Anchorage Solid Waste Services
UAA researchers use machine learning to debunk COVID-19 misinformation
At UAA, computer science Professor Shawn Butler, Ph.D., has been using machine learning to debunk COVID-19 misinformation on social media. Butler’s efforts are part of the Division of Population Health Sciences and Department of Journalism and Public Communication’s mission to combat COVID-19 misinformation on public-facing Facebook pages with scientifically accurate information from credited sources through its ongoing Alaska Public Health Information Response Team project.
Identifying and responding to misinformation on the internet can be a daunting and time-consuming process. So Butler and her team developed a way to use machine learning to assist in automatically identifying COVID-19 misinformation through natural language processing analysis, where a model is fed a data set of text labeled as “misinformation” or “not misinformation” with point values assigned to certain keywords or phrases to train the model to identify misinformation that is not labeled.
Currently, Butler’s model boasts an 80% accuracy rate when identifying misinformation and a 50% accuracy rate when identifying what isn’t misinformation — a number she is confident will improve after providing the model with a much larger labeled data set.
Additionally, another model helps determine the effectiveness of the response team’s efforts by evaluating the change in sentiment of the replies after a member of the team responds to misinformation with accurate information. According to Butler, those resulting conversations indicate a positive change in sentiment.
Looking ahead, Butler hopes to use machine learning to prebunk misinformation before anyone has the chance to even consider it, bringing to mind the old adage that “a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”
