DIRECTOR CHOSEN TO HEAD ALASKA'S SYSTEM OF COOPERATIVE EXTENSION OFFICES

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 19, 1999

Fairbanks, Alaska - Anthony Nakazawa, a 20-year veteran with Alaska Cooperative Extension, has been named statewide extension director and will oversee management of district offices located in 11 communities across Alaska along with its faculty of extension specialists and district agents in the areas of land resources, home economics, 4-H and youth development and community development. The announcement was made today (Feb. 19) at the University of Alaska Board of Regents meeting in Juneau.

ACE serves a vital role in the University of Alaska Fairbanks' land grant mission by providing statewide educational contact between university research and the general population. Nakazawa, a professor and extension economist, has been with ACE since 1981, except for a three-year period in 1992 when he took a leave of absence from UAF to serve as director of the Division of Community and Rural Development with the Alaska Department of Community and Regional Affairs.

Nakazawa was named interim ACE director in 1997 by Ralph Gabrielli, the executive dean of UAF's College of Rural Alaska, under which ACE falls administratively.

"Dr. Nakazawa has demonstrated his ability to link the university, public and private community-based groups, and government agencies to best serve the people of this state," Gabrielli said.

UAF Chancellor Joan Wadlow applauded the appointment by pointing out Nakazawa's extensive connections to towns and villages throughout the state. "That is an important framework on which to forge more productive partnerships in Alaska to meet state and national priorities," Wadlow said.

Nakazawa received his bachelor's in economics from the University of Hawaii Manoa in 1971 and a masters in urban economics from the University of California Santa Barbara in 1974. He received his Ph.D. in agriculture and resource economics from the University of California Berkeley in 1979.

His past extension economist activities include measuring economic impacts and input-output economics, local tourism development, and community and rural economic development.

Currently, Nakasawa is serving as the director for the Alaska Municipal Clerks Institute and program coordinator for the annual Agricultural Symposium, as well as serving on the advisory board to the Western Rural Development Center, which coordinates community development research and extension activities around land grant universities in the Western states.

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CONTACT: UAF College of Rural Alaska Executive Dean Ralph Gabrielli, (907) 474-7143.

DPD/2-19-99/99-053