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March 1, 2023
Dear UAF community,
We celebrate and each year in March. Activities this month provide us an opportunity to acknowledge
and celebrate the distinguished contributions of women at UAF.
Throughout our history, women faculty, staff and students at UAF have made lasting
contributions to our state and the world. Even during our fledgling years as the Alaska
Agricultural College and School of Mines, when only a small fraction of women pursued
college degrees across the nation, UAF alumna were making their mark on history.
I’d like to highlight four of them here.Ìý
Margaret Murie was the second graduate in UAF’s history, earning a business administration degree
in 1924. Her career as a naturalist and author spanned decades and earned her numerous
awards and recognitions as one of the founders of the conservation movement in the
United States. Murie was instrumental in the passage of the Wilderness Act and the
creation of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In 1998, President Clinton awarded
her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor. She is
also the recipient of the Audubon Medal, the John Muir Award, the Robert Marshall
Conservation Award and the National Wildlife Federation's J.N. Ding Darling Conservationist
of the Year Award.
Genevieve Parker in 1928 was the first woman to earn a mining degree from UAF (then the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines). After graduating and working for the Fairbanks Exploration Co., she moved to Boston
to work in the headquarters of the F.E.’s parent company, U.S. Smelting, Refining
and Mining. At the time, she was the only professional female mining engineer in the
nation.Ìý
Flora Harper enrolled in UAF in 1931. At the age of 25, she became the first Alaska Native student
to graduate from the college, earning a bachelor's degree in home economics in 1935.
For more than three decades, she provided educational opportunities for Alaskans,
first as a classroom teacher and then as a public librarian in Anchorage.
Helen Atkinson graduated from UAF in 1936 and was the university’s first woman to earn a civil engineering
degree. Following graduation, she worked for many businesses and organizations, including
the Fairbanks Exploration Co., Boeing Co. in Seattle and the City of Fairbanks. She
began writing about the oil industry in the 1950s and covered construction of the
trans-Alaska pipeline as a reporter for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.Ìý
Several events this month will help us to celebrate Women’s History Month. The Nanook Diversity and Action Center is hosting an in the Wood Center Multi-level Lounge on March 8 from noon to 2 p.m. NDAC will also
host a three-day conference in the Wood Center from March 29-31 that will include
panels with women in the trades, business, and media, a leadership lunch, and various
other activities. Check the UAF events page for more information on these events.
Let’s continue to build a culture of diversity, inclusion and caring at UAF, and make
our working and learning spaces a place of belonging for all.
Thank you for choosing UAF.
Dan White, chancellor
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