Andrew Josephson, President

An avid outdoorsman and runner, Andrew Josephson is an outstanding divorce and custody advocate. Andrew has been an adjunct college instructor and is a public official, serving the municipality of Anchorage (Zoning Board of Examiners and Appeals). He studied in England during his undergraduate education and has a Masters Degree in Arts in teaching social studies.

Kneeland Taylor, Vice President

Kneeland Taylor is an attorney practicing law in Anchorage where he has lived most of his life. He has been a regular at Board of Game meetings since the mid 1990's, and has been appointed as the token wildlife advocate to two Board of Game subcomittees. The first of those committees concerned wolf trapping on State lands adjoining Denali National Park, and the other concerned trapping in Chugach State Park and along popular hiking trails.

Kneely was the prime sponsor and manager of the unsuccessful 1998 citizen ballot initiative that would have prohited using snares to kill wolves on State lands, and he has organized two attempts to elect wildlife sympathizers to the Anchorage Fish and Game Advisory Committee. Kneely takes pride in the fact that in 2007 it was his testimony against wolverine trapping that provoked Board of Game member Bob Bell to express his true (anti-wildlife) feelings on the record, the reporting of which resulted in widespread outrage against the current membership of the BOG.

John Toppenberg, Treasurer

See John's Bio under AWA director.

Connie Brandel, Secretary

See Connie's Bio under Office Administrator.

Tina M. Brown

Tina M. Brown moved to Juneau in 2006 from Atlanta, Georgia, thus achieving a dream of many, many years to live in Alaska. She is a retired high school English teacher and previously managed a used book store.

For about 30 years before moving to Juneau, she and her husband Greg and backpacked in Denali National Park for one to two weeks almost every summer. They chose routes that would lead through bear and wolf areas, but were joyful to see all the wildlife in Denali - one of their most treasured Denali afternoons was spent quietly watching a pika collect hay for his den.

She writes; "For as long as I can remember, I've been writing to legislators in Alaska in opposition of aerial hunting. In fact, one summer Greg and I boycotted Alaska because of aerial hunting, and I wrote to every Alaska legislator I could think of to say that we were doing so. Now that I live here, I do what I can to support our state's wildlife."

"Just a few months after I arrived in Juneau, the Pack Creek bears came under threat of hunting. I testified for the bears even though I had had rotator cuff surgery only a week before and was not supposed to be out. That was the first time I saw Jenny Pursell (though we didn't meet at that time); I never forgot how compelling her testimony was."

"My husband and I have been members of many wildlife and environmental organizations for all of our adult lives. We have been members of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance for about two years, and strongly support all that the Alliance stands for."

Linda Donegan

An Alaskan for most of her life, Linda Donegan became a community activist after moving from Juneau to Anchorage in the early 90's. At that time she organized a group of 200 of her neighbors to oppose the introduction of a moose hunt into her Hillside neighborhood and the adjacent Anchorage portion of Chugach State Park. She represented the group at the Alaska Board of Game and Anchorage Advisory Committee meetings, wrote opinion pieces for the Anchorage Daily News, appeared on radio and television, and participated in drafting the wildlife management portion of the Anchorage 2020 Plan. These efforts were successful at preventing the installation of this hunt for ten years.

After observing state game management politics from the inside, especially the initiation of "Intensive Game Management" policy at that time, she has seen a need to balance a system that has come to represent only consumptive use in order to more accurately align it with the interests of all Alaskans.

L. Mackenzie Donegan

Mackenzie was born and raised in Alaska and is currently a student at the University of Alaska. Having had unparalleled opportunities to observe wildlife from her childhood home near Chugach State Park, she has developed a real appreciation for their presence as a reflection of a healthy ecosystem, and is grateful for the privilege she has had of observing them in their habitat. After many hours of sketching moose and bears on the Alaskan landscape, she has become a talented sketch artist

Art Greenwalt

Fairbanks resident, former AWA Board Member, and past Board President, Art Greenwalt is back and ornery as ever. Art is a longtime wildlife advocate and conservation activist. His great wit and thorough knowledge of Alaska’s wildlife issues finds its way into the Fairbanks Daily Miner, and Anchorage Daily news on a regular basis.

Jenny Pursell

Juneau resident Jenny Pursell is another strong voice for Alaska’s wildlife. She has been a particularly effective activist and advocate for the wolves of Douglas Island near Juneau. She co-founded Voices for Douglas Island Wildlife, which managed to institute a first time ever wolf management plan there. Jenny also serves as co-chair of the Mendenhall Refuge Citizens Advisory Group, and regularly testifies before the state legislature on wildlife issues.

Advisory Board

Nick Jans

Nick Jans is a longtime contributing editor to Alaska Magazine and a member of USA Today's Board of Editorial Contributors. He's lived 26 years in Alaska, most of them in remote Native villages, and currently makes his home in Juneau with his wife, Sherrie, 3 dogs, and a varying assemblage of other critters. Jans's writing and photography have appeared in many magazines and books; he is the author of six books, including The Last Light Breaking and Tracks of the Unseen. His latest is The Grizzly Maze (Dutton, 2005). He is currently gathering information for a book on wolves.

Johnny Johnson

Johnny Johnson was a 15-year old Texan when his parents gave him a Brownie box camera. It quickly became his obsession. Through the years - as a wildlife management student at Texas A& M University, as a National Park Ranger at Denali National Park, and as a professional photographer on assignment for National Geographic, National Wildlife, and dozens of other publications - he developed the skills and persistence that have made his name synonymous with wildlife photography. An avid outdoorsman, Johnny along with six other friends made a record-setting 53-day ascent of Mount McKinley in 1968 by a new route (the Traleika Spur), which hasn't been climbed by anyone since. He has skied across the Brooks Range, kayaked Alaska's rugged coastline, built his own log cabin and devoted his life to recording our natural earth from Alaska to Antarctica. Johnny's work is internationally recognized and published throughout the world. He has stock agent representatives in Europe, Japan, Canada and the USA.

His images can be found in books, magazines, paper products and ad campaigns . But Johnny's real love is the photograph as a work of art. Others must feel the same way since his limited-edition prints have been selling out for over twenty years. His personal goal is "to capture and express the essence of our vanishing natural world. I am disappointed by a growing trend among wildlife photographers to photograph animals in controlled situations, such as zoos and game-farms, and then present this work as wild. The use of captive animals holds no interest for me. My images reflect the truth."

Robert Glenn Ketchum

Robert Glenn Ketchum is a photographer and author who has received numerous acknowledgements throughout his unique 35-year career dedicated not only to fine printmaking and book publishing, but also to the issues of natural resource management and habitat protection upon which he has focused within his work. Ketchum has combined his publications with target-specific exhibitions, lectures and direct lobbying to help establish wilderness lands, enhance national parks and further campaigns to protect habitats and biodiversity. In addition to his photography and writing, he sits on the boards of several prominent conservation organizations, and is Fellow in the International League of Conservation Photographers.

Dune Lankard

Dune is a native leader who travels internationally for conservation causes. He has worked closely with the Alaska Wildlife Alliance on several important campaigns, proving to be a capable innovator. Dune is also Executive Director of the Eyak Preservation Council. Among other honors he was pictured on the cover of Time Magazine, as one of America’s fifty most influential conservation activists.

Lynn Sadler

Lynn came to our attention thanks to a recommendation from Barry Lopez. We got to know her better at the Carnivore’s Conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico this autumn. Lynn is President and CEO of the Mountain Lion Foundation, Sacramento California, and an expert in structuring effective non-profit conservation organizations.

Kathy Sarns Irwin

Kathy Sarns Irwin has lived in Alaska since 1982. She drove from Maine in a yellow VW Bug to work in a fish cannery and stayed because the Bug broke down. The fish business was not for her, and she followed her talents as an artist. She is now a very successful independent artist and designer living in Homer. She has generously contributed her artistic talent to a number of AWA projects, most notably the annual Run Wild Fun Run t-shirt design.

Kathy was the first woman to complete the 200+ mile Alaska Mountain Wilderness Classic (Hope to Homer). She later also completed the Nebesna to McCarthy and the Brooks Range to Wiseman Alaska mountain wilderness races. An avid nordic skier, Kathy has also been a Junior Nordic ski coach since 1984.

Her bright artistic images are products of a vivid imagination inspired by a unique and adventurous life in Alaska with her husband Pat and 2 dogs. Kathy designed the very popular Gold Rush Alaska license plate design - which won the 1998 Best Plate in the United States Award. She specializes in intaglio printmaking and graphic design, and creates a very unique line of activewear clothing marketed as Free Spirit Wear.

Lowell Thomas, Jr.

Lowell is a world traveled adventurer and former Alaska Lieutenant Governor. In recent years much of his time has been devoted to conservation causes, with an emphasis on Alaska’s wildlife. His generous and tireless support of wildlife has been an inspiration to all of us fighting for their wellbeing.