Like a certain domestic diva of the same name, Martha Stewart enjoys cooking and gardening in her spare time.

While she may tend land at home, on the job she tills the federal budget for millions of dollars each year for the University of Alaska. For the university at least, it's a good thing.

As director of federal relations for the University of Alaska, Stewart, 53, has spent the past six years in Washington, D.C., fighting for funding for the university's causes, ranging from supercomputers to digital libraries to tsunami warning systems.

Since coming onboard, federal receipts at the university have jumped 164 percent, from $49.5 million in 1999 to an anticipated $130.9 million in 2006.

"She's magnificent," said President Mark Hamilton. "Absolutely magnificent."

Raised in northern California, Stewart moved to Kotzebue in 1976. Stewart, who said she had "an open mind to doing pretty much anything in life," took a job there as a nurse.

She got bored, however, and began studying how to run a newspaper after work. She founded The Arctic Sounder newspaper in 1986, while jockeying a Sunday night radio show on the side.

After only three years, Stewart said she was bored again, and gave up news writing to take a job with her district's senator, Al Adams.

A stint helping Tony Knowles' 1994 gubernatorial campaign oversee a ballot recount led her to apply for a job in his administration as the state's D.C. federal relations director. She landed the job two months later, she said.

As Stewart lobbied in Washington, the university struggled to do the same. At the time, the university's lobbying efforts were "uncontrolled and undirected," Hamilton said, with campuses across the state regularly sending researchers and administrators to ask Sen. Ted Stevens for money.

To control the process, Hamilton established the university's federal relations office in Washington, D.C., in September 1999, hiring Stewart in the process. Stewart's task was to "orchestrate a discovery of our most important federal initiatives," Hamilton said.

While many research projects go through the competitive process, others are buried deep within must-pass legislation at Stewart's urging by Alaskan Congressional leaders like Stevens.

Most recently, Congress passed a comprehensive energy bill in July that included $15 million over five years for an Arctic Engineering Research Center at UAF. The center would study the effects of permafrost on roads, bridges and buildings.

The national highway bill, also approved in July, will provide $16 million over five years to the university for a national transportation research center.

For all those millions, the university pays Stewart about $113,000, she said, with an office budget of $50,000 to $60,000.

Stephen Jones, UAF's chancellor, said one of Stewart's strengths is knowing which projects will fly and which won't.

"Martha just has a tremendous institutional memory," Jones said. "If it's high priority, and she counsels us against submitting it, we'll take her advice."

Among the initiatives that have survived her scrutiny, the university is currently seeking $240,000 to study virus-free potatoes, $1 million to find pharmaceutical uses of Alaskan blueberries, and $4 million to study the genetics behind hibernation for medical purposes in the military.

Not everyone is happy about this level of pork. During floor debate in July, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., included the recently-funded arctic engineering center in a list of "some of the more "interesting" provisions" in the energy bill.

Citizens Against Government Waste, a nonpartisan group against federal pork, included several University of Alaska projects in its 2005 Congressional Pig Book, including $250,000 for a 50th anniversary celebration of Alaska's statehood.

Pushing for earmarks isn't the only part of Stewart's job. She stays on top of education legislation, such as the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. She also coordinates meetings between UA researchers, administrators, and legislators.

Reducing the school's dependency on Stevens has also been a top priority since she was hired, with Hamilton warning her that Stevens' retirement "could be cataclysmic" to the university, Stewart said.

Up until recently, Stevens, 81, was responsible for most of the earmarked funds UA receives thanks to his chairmanship of the powerful Appropriations Committee. With Stevens' loss of the Appropriations Committee chairmanship this year, the university will likely receive fewer congressional dollars, Stewart said.

"It's clear they're having trouble getting projects through," Stewart said.

Consequently, "sustainability" has become the key word, with almost all of the research she pushes for lasting only three to five years, she said.

About a fourth of Stewart's job is to also shop projects to various agencies around town, including the National Institutes of Health, NASA, the Defense Department, and the Commerce Department, Stewart said. The hope is that the agencies will fund UA without any congressional mandate, she said.

Of course, Stevens isn't the only one who can get UA money. Rep. Don Young was largely behind the $16 million in the highway bill, Stewart said, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who lacks the seniority of Stevens and Young, came through with $15 million found in the energy bill.

"She's junior, but I tell you, she's been doing an exemplary job," Stewart said.

It also doesn't hurt Stewart to share the name of a certain celebrity. She recently appeared with 100 other Martha Stewarts on the show, "Martha." Stewart said she often gets great dinner reservations and bumped-up to first class airline seats for free.

"More often than not, people remember your name," she said.