Staff news

Tom Kuckertz, project manager for the Terminal Operations and Environmental Monitoring program, retired from the council staff in June.

A member of the council’s staff for 14 years, Kuckertz worked closely with the council’s Terminal Operations and Environmental Monitoring Committee, which monitors potential sources of pollution at the Valdez Marine Terminal. During his tenure at the council, Kuckertz headed up projects to monitor such important council issues as corrosion of terminal assets, air and water pollution from the terminal, and issues related to maintenance at the terminal. Kuckertz was particularly known for developing a “systems integrity matrix,” which helped track issues at the terminal and when those issues were expected to be addressed.

He came to Valdez from Jemez Springs, New Mexico, where he was the vice president of software systems for Pajarito Scientific Corporation, a business that developed and manufactured instrumentation for the characterization of nuclear waste. He and several colleagues started the business to commercialize the technology developed while on staff at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Kuckertz held the position of Group Leader of the Systems and Robotics Group at the Los Alamos National Laboratory prior to his first retirement so that he could pursue a second career at Pajarito Scientific Corporation.

After his retirement from his third career, Kuckertz and his wife Sue plan to remain in Anchorage and also spend time at their second home in Jemez Springs and travelling, with plans in the works to take a cruise from Copenhagen to New York. Kuckertz serves on the executive committee of the Engineering Accreditation Commission, and for ABET, Inc., (formerly the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology), the organization that accredits all college engineering programs in the U.S. and in some foreign countries. Kuckertz has helped evaluate engineering programs at universities all over the U.S. and the world, most recently in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. He expects to continue that volunteer work during his retirement.

“RCAC has a lot of diversity of expertise,” Kuckertz says of his years working with the council, “the personality of the [of the organization] is what you might expect or want of a citizens’ group. Citizens might not be rational in an individual sense, but that diversity of backgrounds and perspectives helps form a rational viewpoint as a whole out of the many different perspectives.”

“Tom has been a great asset to and representative for this council,” said Mark Swanson, executive director of the council. “While we will miss his humor and technical contributions to the workplace, I expect many on staff will continue to see Tom socially. He’s been a great friend and colleague.”

New Terminal Operations Project Manager hired

Austin Love was hired by the council in June to replace Kuckertz. Love has a Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry from the University of San Francisco and a Masters of Environmental Science and Management from the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Most recently, Love held the position of Water Resources Engineer for Systech Water Resources, Inc., modelling and analyzing pollutant loading and hydrology in various watersheds in the United States. Love also worked as a volunteer for the Santa Barbara Channelkeeper, collecting and recording water sample data.

Love commercial fished in Prince William Sound as a skiff-driver for Thane Miller, current vice president of the council. Love spent the week of June 16 training with Kuckertz prior to his retirement. Love began working full time in the Valdez office on July 14th, but will be taking some time off in mid-August to get married in Valdez.

Barb Penrose, administrative assistant for the council’s Anchorage office, resigned in June. Penrose had been studying towards a second career as a master sommelier, an expert in wine and other spirits.

Penrose began working part-time for the council in 1998, during her summers off from her 22 year career as a teacher of deaf children. She was originally hired to digitize and catalog a backlog of historical documents the council had accumulated. In March 2010, after Penrose retired from her teaching position, she was hired full-time as administrative assistant for the council. While in that position, she assisted with the document management, made travel arrangements, and assisted with financial matters.

In June, she moved to Brier, Washington to begin work at the Chateau St Michelle winery, and to live near her mother.

Though she loves Alaska and wished she could stay, the area just didn’t offer enough opportunity for an aspiring sommelier, she says.

Following Penrose’s departure, the council hired Natalie Novik to fill the vacant position. Novik was born and educated in Paris, and has Breton and Russian roots. Novik has a Master of Arts degree in Northern Studies from Sorbonne University in Paris.

Novik volunteered to help clean up after the multiple oil spills that plagued Brittany starting in the 1970’s. When the Exxon Valdez spill occurred, Novik was teaching in New York and already planning to move to Alaska.

Her first job here was to help open the border between Russia and Alaska for NANA Regional Native Corporation. She lived in Kotzebue for five years, regularly commuting between both sides of the Bering Strait. She also did some work in Sakhalin, Russia to help establish oil spill clean-up and prevention teams. She worked for 12 years for the Northern Forum on a wide variety of issues in the North and the Arctic, including oil spills, flooding, environmental and wildlife issues.

She speaks French and Russian fluently, as well as a little Breton.

“I am glad now to have this incredible opportunity to work for RCAC, round the corner from my home,” Novik says.

The council recently hired Valdez resident Nelli Vanderburg to fill the vacant project manager assistant position. Vanderburg began working for the council in October 2013.

Vanderburg was born and raised in Valdez. She has a degree in English from Southern Oregon University and a degree in web design from Kaplan University. She moved to the Lower 48, but wound up coming back, because she says she missed the scenery and the waters of Prince William Sound.

She worked previously as a library assistant at the Valdez Consortium Library and as a board operator and all-around gopher at Valdez’s KVAK radio.

She now provides support to the council’s project managers and the Terminal Operations and Environmental Monitoring, Port Operations and Vessel Traffic System, Legislative Affairs, Board Governance and Long Range Planning committee volunteers and their projects.

Vanderburg took over the position left vacant by Anna Carey, who joined the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation’s staff in September.

Lisa Matlock joined the council’s staff on August 12. Matlock brings almost twenty years of experience in coastal Alaska education and outreach to the position.

Originally from southwestern Colorado, she is a “green brat,” a term for kids whose parents work for natural resource agencies, so she bounced around beautiful places in the west during her childhood. Her family moved to Alaska to 1974. They returned to the lower 48 in 1976, but Matlock never got over her time in Alaska.

Always torn between a love for science and a love for communications, she majored in English and minored in Biology at the University of Chicago. She returned to Alaska for graduate school at the University of Alaska Anchorage, specializing in nature writing and science communications. This background led to her nearly two decades of work for natural resource agencies in the state.

After working for several years as a seasonal park ranger in Anchorage, Skagway, and Gustavus, Matlock’s first permanent job was in Seward at Kenai Fjords National Park in 2000. She worked as the park’s education specialist on tour boats in the fjords and at Exit Glacier. She was part of the Ocean Alaska Science and Learning Center, a research and education partnership between the National Park Service and the Alaska SeaLife Center, from its inception.

Matlock was the education specialist for Sitka National Historical Park from 2003-2007. There she interpreted the rich and emotional connections between land and water, people and places. The park’s 100 acres in Sitka includes totem poles in the rainforest and the Russian Bishop’s House. For parts of each summer, Matlock worked on the M/V Spirit of Endeavor as an onboard naturalist for Cruise West. She interpreted the phenomenal marine environment and special communities along the Inside Passage from Ketchikan to Juneau during 8-day cruises.

From 2007-2012, Matlock traveled a huge swath of Alaska’s coast, doing education and community outreach for the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. Matlock worked in communities both large and small doing wildlife education, including oil spill-related subjects, during this time. Most recently, Matlock worked as an outreach specialist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Anchorage. For the past year she did a variety of communication projects for the relatively new Landscape Conservation Cooperative partnerships.

Matlock is very excited to be working for the council and looks forward to meeting those who live in communities new to her. She also is excited about reconnecting with those she has worked with in the past in a new capacity. Look for her visiting the region’s communities this fall and winter.