Cole appointed to Alaska Historical Commission
May 23, 2012
Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell has appointed UAF professor Terrence Cole to the Alaska Historical Commission. The commission advises the governor and Legislature on matters related to Alaska's history and prehistory, oversees the state historic preservation plan, and surveys, evaluates, and catalogs printed prehistory and history materials. Additionally, the commission develops criteria for evaluation of monuments and historic sites, recommends historic preservation grant projects for funding, determines names and changes names of geographic features, and prepares a dictionary of geographic names.
Cole, of Fairbanks, is the director of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Office of Public History. A longtime history professor at UAF, Cole has also worked as a historian with the National Bank of Alaska, an editor of the Alaska Journal of Commerce, and has held a variety of research positions. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Alaska before completing his doctorate in history at the University of Washington. Cole is appointed as a public member on the commission.