Movers and Shakers for June 16

Zach Frain was appointed Mortgage Loan Originator III and loan officer at First National Bank Alaska. Frain, who worked for First National originally in 2005, returns to the bank with nearly 15 years of local mortgage lending experience.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski announced that Spencer Nelson has joined her Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee staff and that Abigail Hemenway has joined the committee’s non-designated staff. She also welcomed four summer interns who are assisting the committee with various projects this summer — Lauren Eckl, Kaiwi Eisenhour, Alexander Jackstadt and Nathan Solorio — and noted her appreciation for the time Samuel Burgess spent interning during the month of May. Nelson joins the committee as a professional staff member focusing on energy innovation, including nuclear energy. He comes to the committee after four years at ClearPath, where he was a policy program director. Prior to that he conducted research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Nelson has bachelor’s degrees in environmental science and quantitative biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Hemenway joins the non-designated committee staff after working as an Arctic program assistant and administrative aide at the North Star Group. She earned a bachelor’s degree in political science at the University of Miami and is originally from Juneau. Solorio, a legal intern, is pursuing a law degree at Willamette University. Prior to law school, he served as legislative correspondent and grants coordinator for Murkowski’s personal office in Washington, D.C. Solorio is from Anchorage and graduated from the University of Alaska Anchorage in 2015. Burgess served the committee as a legal intern in May 2019, before joining the Coast Guard’s JAG internship program for the remainder of the summer, and is pursuing a law degree at Cornell Law School. Burgess is from Anchorage and graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 2016. Eckl, a college intern, is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in political science with a minor in business from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She also served the Senate as a high school page in the summer of 2015. Eisenhour, a college intern, is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in chemistry at Weber State University. This marks his second summer with the committee. Jackstadt, a college intern, attended Anchorage East High School and recently graduated with honors from the University of Alaska Anchorage with a bachelor’s degree in economics and was a member of the university’s hockey team.

Jeff Schramm is the new forest supervisor for the Chugach National Forest. As forest supervisor, Schramm will oversee the management of more than 5.4 million acres of National Forest System lands in Southcentral Alaska. Schramm graduated from Utah State University with a bachelor’s degree in forest management. He worked as the district ranger on the Ashley and the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forests in Utah and most recently served as the Forest Supervisor of the Ashley National Forest, where he has been instrumental in advancing the revision of the forest plan. Schramm will report to the Alaska Region in August. He replaces Terri Marceron, who retired at the end of December 2018 after serving as Forest Supervisor for eight years.

Credit Union 1 announced the selection of Spencer Herrington as its new physical security officer. Herrington brings past experience in managing and operating all phases of corporate and physical security to his new role. He has previously worked in financial institutions, casinos and labor environments. Herrington has been licensed with the State of Alaska for more than 12 years in armed security; he is a certified NRA Range Instructor and a current ALICE instructor as well. He has also attended Homeland Security IED counter terrorism workshops and received training related to social engineering and counter terrorism measures. Herrington is a 1996 graduate of the Alaska Computer Institute. Credit Union 1 also announced the promotion of Mai Moua to manager of its Downtown Branch in Anchorage. Moua was initially hired by the credit union in 2005, and she has since served in several roles ranging from records clerk to teller, member service officer and more. Most recently, she held the position of assistant branch manager at the credit union’s Midtown Branch prior to her promotion. Moua also holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration in finance.

The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute board of directors has selected Jeremy Woodrow as the new executive director. Woodrow has served as ASMI’s interim executive director since December 2018, and as communications director since 2017. As executive director, Woodrow will administer all ASMI programs and operations out of its global headquarters, located in Juneau. Before joining ASMI, Woodrow served as the communications officer for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. He has previously worked with ASMI both as an intern in the communications program and with ASMI’s former public relations agency, Schiedermayer &Associates Alaska. Born and raised in Juneau from a commercial fishing family, he also brings a wealth of industry knowledge to the role. Woodrow holds bachelor’s degrees in public relations and advertising from Northern Arizona University. Woodrow replaces former ASMI Executive Director Alexa Tonkovich, who left ASMI in December 2018 to pursue a master’s in international business.