TWO PROFESSORS CHOSEN TO LEAD RURAL CAMPUS SITES
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 23, 1997
Fairbanks, Alaska -Two University of Alaska Fairbanks professors have been named acting directors of College of Rural Alaska campuses. Maynard Perkins, a math and natural sciences professor will lead UAF's Northwest Campus in Nome, and Blanche Brunk, a community health professor, will take the helm of the UAF Kuskokwim Campus in Bethel.
Ralph Gabrielli, College of Rural Alaska Executive Dean, made the appointments to fill vacant positions at both campuses. Perkins has been with UAF's Northwest campus for 12 years, teaching everything from freshman biology classes to graduate education courses. In addition to teaching students the tangent of an angle, he has also taught them how to fence with foils, survive arctic weather, photograph the world near the Arctic Circle and to be successful sub- arctic gardeners. Perkins' students have taken flight, literally, through his private pilot ground school course. He is considered an innovator in distance delivery and curriculum development, Gabrielli said.
Five hundred miles south of Nome, Blanche Brunk has been named acting director of UAF's Kuskokwim campus in Bethel.
Like Perkins, Brunk was selected for the position for her innovative instructional methods and her commitment to the delivery of high quality educational services in rural Alaska, Gabrielli said.
Currently an assistant professor in community service health, she has lead a training and development partnership with the Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation for the past two years. Brunk brings more than 30 years experience in the human services to the position. She has served as a public health nurse as president of Bethel Community Services board of directors and as deputy commissioner for the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services. Brunk was also the first executive director of the Fairbanks Resource Center for Parents and Children, a non-profit child abuse and neglect prevention and treatment program.
CONTACT: Executive Dean Ralph
Gabrielli, College of Rural Alaska, (907) 474-7434.
UAF News releases available electronically at:
http://www.uaf.edu/univrel/media/index.html
JCS/6-23-97/97/97-086