Staff Members
Executive Director
Malinda Chase
Anvik/Fairbanks
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Malinda is Deg Hit’an Athabascan and lives in Fairbanks, however, her home is Anvik, where she often visits. Her experience is in non-profit management, Native education, learning styles, language revitalization, climate change education, post-secondary distance education, editing, and youth programming. She is a graduate of Wellesley College and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Malinda serves on the board of directors for Deloy Ges, Inc., Anvik’s ANCSA village corporation, and works with the Association of Interior Native Educators (AINE) on educational initiatives that positively impact Alaska. When she has the chance Malinda loves cutting and preserving salmon, picnics, and being in a boat or kayak on any Alaskan river.
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---- Malinda Chase
Fawn Jelinek
Fairbanks
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Fawn Jelinek is a lifelong Fairbanksan. Her grandparents were Ella and Elstun "Bud" Lauesen. Ella Lauesen was Ojibwe and was raised on the Lac du Flambeau reservation in Wisconsin. Fawn's parents are Juanita and Orville "Sam" Helms. Fawn and her husband, Kevin Jelinek, have one daughter, Ella.
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Fawn worked for the Alaska State Legislature in the late 1980s to mid 1990s. She was then a teacher trainer in the Peace Corps in Kiribati in the Central Pacific and taught in Quinhagak in Western Alaska. Upon returning home to Fairbanks, she worked for the Fairbanks school district providing professional development to teachers with linguistically diverse students in their classrooms, earned an MS in Educational Administration, and then worked for AINE providing professional development in learning styles and brain-based learning. Most recently, Fawn taught upper grades at Hunter Elementary for twelve years until she retired in 2022.
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---- Fawn Jelinek
