Meet the 2023-24 Alumni of Distinction
UAA’s Office of Alumni Relations and Alumni Association were pleased to welcome spring by announcing the latest Alumni of Distinction awards recipients. The three distinguished alumni were honored for their contributions in their fields and communities at the UAA Alumni of Distinction Celebration on Friday, March 29, which saw over 150 graduates and supporters pack Lucy Cuddy Hall on the Anchorage campus to reconnect with their hometown university while raising donations to benefit UAA programs and scholarships.
Alumni Emerging Leader
Amie Collins
M.B.A. General Management ’17
B.A. Political Science ‘13
Executive director of Best Beginnings
In 2022, Collins was named executive director of Best Beginnings, a nonprofit that promotes school readiness through early literacy and education initiatives in partnership with school districts, Head Start programs, and municipal and state departments. The largest of these initiatives is the administration of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, a national service that partners with local literacy organizations to mail free books monthly to children from birth to age five. In Alaska, Best Beginnings has been able to offer Imagination Library to more than 14,000 children in 129 communities.
Growing up an avid reader, Collins learned about foreign countries, and by extension, social justice and international relations. Once enrolled at UAA, she expanded on those interests by joining student government and the UAA Seawolf Debate team. The fact that both offered travel opportunities was an added bonus.
“Everything I did or got involved in was because of travel,” Collins joked. “If I had a sign, it would say, ‘Will do anything for travel.’”
While earning her Bachelor of Arts in political science and Master of Business Administration back to back, Collins met her husband at UAA and started her own family. Putting travel on hold to focus on raising her children, she saw an opportunity join Best Beginnings as communications and development director to focus on outreach and its growing literacy programs, a position she held for five years before the previous executive director, Abbe Hensley, retired. When the board of directors began its search for a leader who could replace their founder, it didn’t take long for Collins’s name to rise to the top.
“Best Beginnings is a public-private partnership, so my political science background has really lent itself to this role as I have the opportunity to work with policymakers who make decisions that impact families and children,” said Collins. “And my M.B.A. has really set me up to be a unique nonprofit leader. Nonprofits do amazing work, but sustainability is key. I could not do what I do if I was not viewing my work through the lens of sustaining a business while serving our customers.”
In addition to her work with Best Beginnings, Collins sits on the Family Advisory Council for the Clinton Foundation’s Too Small to Fail organization.
Collins’ passion for reading isn’t something she shares with only her kids, or even other kids, but parents as well, noting that even the smallest amount of daily reading to a child can be transformative for intellectual development and relationship building.
“My love for language as a child became my love of language for other children,” said Collins. “To be able to share that message with other parents and caregivers, that regardless of how much money you have, where you come from or what’s going on your life right now, there’s something you can do every day that is simple and will add up to something truly incredible when it comes to your child’s future. I think that’s powerful.”
Alumni Humanitarian
Celeste Hodge Growden
B.S.W. Social Work ’96
A.A. General Program ’92
President and CEO of the Alaska Black Caucus
Sparked by the overdue protests and conversations on the topics of racial equity and systemic change in 2020 and 2021, Black organizations across the country received a surge of political and financial support from a population ready to make a difference. In Anchorage, leading the charge is the Alaska Black Caucus (ABC), a nonpartisan nonprofit that has advocated for the constitutional rights of Black Americans in Alaska as early as the 1970s.
In 2019, Celeste Hodge Growden, B.S.W. Social Work ’96, A.A. General Program ’92, became president and CEO of ABC where she works to enact institutional reform via specialized committees focused on four core pillars: justice, education, economics and health.
“To really move the equity needle away from discrimination, we need to recognize that racism has been historically ingrained in key areas of society,” said Growden. “What’s been beautiful is that not all of our allies look anything like me, but they believe in our mission, they stand alongside us and lift us up. Together, we’re able to accomplish uncommon results.”
With the additional support, in just three years Growden and ABC have been able to convince the Anchorage Police Department to agree to implement mandatory body cameras for officers, get the Anchorage School District to adopt Anti-Racism and Instructional Equity Policies, and launch annual Blackout Days to spotlight local Black-owned businesses.
Most personal to Growden was the completion of Alaska’s first Black health needs assessment. With funding from the Anchorage Health Department, ABC partnered with the UAA School of Social Work to produce the most comprehensive snapshot of health within the Black community. Over 600 surveys were collected. Had such a report existed previously, Growden’s mother may not have passed away in 2019 from ovarian cancer, which had gone undiagnosed for years, and is a disease found to be suffered at a higher rate among Black women. Despite the tragic timing, Growden is comforted by the fact that going forward, the health needs assessment will inform different programs to improve the health of Black Alaskans.
“My experience and advisors at UAA really instilled my deep care and concern for individuals,” said Growden. “What’s wonderful is getting to build on that to get at the macro level and help large groups of people while talking directly to gatekeepers about our issues and concerns.”
Before her tenure at ABC, Growden worked as a family service counselor for the Anchorage Health Department before retiring as deputy director for the mayor’s office of equal opportunity. She also served as past president of the NAACP Alaska chapter for nearly a decade.
Growden continues to expand work on ABC’s four core pillars from its new 6,000-square-foot building in downtown Anchorage, christened the Equity Center. The space will be multi-purpose, providing below-market-rate office space for lease, a commercial kitchen, a gathering area and a coworking space. The Equity Center is not meant to be a beacon of hope for any one group, but the entire BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) community.
“Our issues are their issues and collectively there is power,” said Growden. “By coming together, I’m optimistic that one day, maybe not in my lifetime, we’ll get to that beloved community that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. often referenced where everybody is treated equally and everybody has opportunity.”
Alumni of Achievement
A. Janelle Pfleiger
B.B.A. Real Estate ’78
Real estate agent and former national president of the Residential Real Estate Council
Purchasing a home can be one of the biggest, costliest transactions a person or family can make. A. Janelle Pfleiger, B.B.A. Real Estate ’78, understands the enormity of such a decision, and wants to make sure the real estate agent guiding clients through the homebuying process is beholden to the highest code of ethics.
In 2016, Pfleiger served as national president of the Residential Real Estate Council, a 30,000-worldwide member organization that acts as the educational arm of the National Association of Realtors. During her tenure as national president, she championed the continuing education of real estate agents, which included awarding the coveted certified residential specialist (CRS) designation. Considered to be the doctorate of the real estate industry, only about 3% of real estate agents in the U.S. have achieved CRS designation.
“When you’re dealing with people’s life savings, it’s vitally important to adhere to a level of education and professionalism similar to other people that you contract for service, such as an attorney or accountant,” said Pfleiger. “The decisions we are involved in are just as impactful to someone’s financial life as those industries. It isn’t just selling a house, it’s selling a service, and I want to work to make sure we’re viewed in that way.”
Pfleiger began her real estate career in 1979, specializing in clients transferring to Anchorage for jobs in the oil or health care industries. Pfleiger was particularly adept at selling the lifestyle to anyone anxious about relocating, having done the same thing herself.
Originally from Colorado but having grown up all over the southwest, Pfleiger visited Alaska once to see her aunt and uncle. After meeting her future husband during that trip, she made the move permanent, finally setting down roots in Anchorage in 1974 at the age of 19.
Seeing the rapid expansion happening in Anchorage at that time, Pfleiger decided that she wanted to pursue a career in real estate. Coincidentally, she was at the right place at the right time, as UAA, then named Anchorage Community College, had one of the only real estate curricula in the country.
“My aunt got her counseling degree at UAA and really spoke to the level of professionalism at the university,” said Pfleiger. “When I enrolled, the smaller class sizes and my professors made such an impact on how I thought, and the [real estate] program really allowed me to pursue something that I felt was valued but wasn’t yet available in a lot of places across the U.S.”
Outside her work supporting fellow real estate agents, Pfleiger has served as board chair for the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce and the Providence Alaska Children’s Hospital, and board member of the Alaska Botanical Garden. She currently sits on the board of the Better Business Bureau western region and is a member of the Anchorage Athena Society. In 2006, she was named CRS REALTOR of the Year and Anchorage REALTOR of the Year, followed by Alaska REALTOR of the Year in 2010 and YWCA Alaska Woman of Achievement in 2007.
“I just felt like it was important to give back to this community that had given me so much. Certainly, there were people who were doing the same for me every step along the way,” said Pfleiger. “Also, I wanted to live by example so my three kids could learn to not just be a taker, but a giver.”