Provost's Office Direct Reports

Pete Pinney is acting director for the UAF Institute of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Extension. He had previously served as Associate Vice Chancellor for Rural, Community and Native Education/Executive Dean of the College of Rural and Community Development and is retired Emeritus.

Dean Pinney was Interim Director of the UAF Cooperative Extension Service from 2007 to 2009. Pete conducts grant proposal writing workshops for the North Star Community Foundation and, prior to that, for the Bureau of Land Management National Training Center and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service National Conservation Training Center.

IANRE contains the Alaska Farm Experimental Stations of Fairbanks and Palmer, Cooperative Extension Service programming areas of Home, Health and Family Development, Agriculture/Horticulture and the Mining and Petroleum Training Service.

Dr. Bill Schnabel began his appointment as CEM Dean in January 2019. Prior to that, he served as Director of the Institute of Northern Engineering, Director of the Water and Environmental Research Center, and also held positions as a research faculty member, an academic faculty member, and a private sector environmental engineer. Dr. Schnabel holds tenure as a Professor of Environmental Engineering in CEM’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. His research interests include food-energy-water system dynamics, arctic/subarctic infrastructure planning, cold-region hydrologic processes, and water quality. Dr. Schnabel earned a BS in Chemistry from Purdue University (1991), an MS in Environmental Engineering from the University of Iowa (1996), and a PhD in Environmental Systems Engineering from the University of Alaska Fairbanks (2000).

Dr. Moran previously served as acting director of President Obama’s National Ocean Council and assistant director for ocean sciences in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (2013-14) and as program director in the Chemical Oceanography Program at the National Science Foundation (2012-15). Before leaving for Washington in early 2012, he was professor of oceanography, co-director and co-principal investigator of the Rhode Island NSF Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, and served as assistant vice president for research administration at URI. He earned a doctorate in oceanography from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada, in 1990, and conducted his post-doctoral research at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.

Dr. Lopez earned her Ph.D. in Public Health from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and her masters in Public Health from the University of Washington, Seattle.  Prior to joining UAF in 2009, Dr. Lopez was instrumental in establishing the University of Florida’s College of Public Health and Health Professions.

Lopez currently serves as the Chair of the Department of Psychology and Philosophy.  As a public health trained professional with expertise in community-based participatory research Lopez’ research, teaching, service, and leadership essentially engage community stakeholders in addressing priority concerns towards enhancing wellbeing, quality of life, social justice, and sustainability.

Ms. Jensen completed her BA in French at Grinnell College, Iowa, in 1986, and her Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) at the University of Washington, Seattle, in 1996. She joined UAF as Library Assistant at the BioSciences Library, followed by a position as Circulation/Interlibrary Loan/Media Manager, from 1998-2006. After joining the Library Science faculty in 2006, she was subsequently tenured and promoted to the rank of Professor and became the Library Collection Development Officer, overseeing all aspects of management for all formats of library materials. She has served as President of the Alaska Library Association, Library Science Department Chair, and Co-chair of the Alaska Library Association statewide conference. Her current research interests include collections management, intellectual freedom, and library contributions to student success.

Michelle Bartlett holds an undergraduate degree in Occupational Therapy from Washington University in St. Louis and a MA from St. Louis University. She began her career at UAF in 1974 as coordinator of a child welfare-training grant within what was then known as the sociology/psychology department. Over the years, she has held a number of other administrative positions within UAF and the University of Alaska statewide system including director of the statewide Elderhostel program and dean of continuing education with what was then known as the Tanana Valley Community College. After working in the private sector for thirteen years, Bartlett returned to the university in 2003 as Director of Summer Sessions & Lifelong Learning.

Dr. Patrick Druckenmiller began his career at UAF as Earth Sciences Curator at the University of Alaska Museum in 2007 and was appointed as the museum director in July, 2018. He is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Geosciences. Dr. Druckenmiller received his BA in Botany from the University of Wisconsin Madison, his MS in Biology at Montana State University and his PhD in Zoology at the University of Calgary. Pat is a vertebrate paleontologist specializing in the study of Mesozoic marine reptiles and arctic dinosaurs from Alaska. Throughout his career he has worked at or with numerous museums including the University of Wisconsin Geology Museum (Madison), the Museum of the Rockies (Bozeman, Montana), the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology (Drumheller, Alberta) and the University of Oslo Natural History (Norway).

Dr. Hueffer received veterinary training in Germany followed by a PhD from Cornell University on Canine Parvovirus. After graduate school he furthered his molecular pathogenesis training at Yale Medical School. Since arriving at UAF in 2006, Dr. Hueffer has expanded his research interest to investigate infectious diseases in Alaskan wildlife with a special interest in zoonotic diseases and other One Health related issues as well as engagement of Alaska Native and rural students in research. 
He has taught courses in the Departments of Biology & Wildlife and Veterinary Medicine, from large introductory courses to graduate and professional courses. He holds a post graduate certificate in veterinary education and has been internationally recognized for his teaching excellence. Together with Dr. Reynolds he leads the Biomedical and Student Learning (BLaST) a large mentoring program funded by NIH. 
He currently serves as Associate Dean of Veterinary Medicine and leads professional veterinary program. He also is a Masters student in Arctic and Northern Studies Program art UAF.

Dr. Fitts completed her B.A. in Political Science at Furman University (Greeneville, SC), her M.A. in Spanish at Bowling Green State University (Bowling Green, OH), and her Ph.D. in Romance Studies with certificates in Latin American Studies and Women’s Studies at Duke University (Durham, NC). She joined the UAF faculty in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures in 1995 and was subsequently tenured and promoted to Professor. She served as Chair of the Department of Foreign Languages for six years, and as Coordinator of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program for three years. Dr. Fitts’ research focuses on contemporary Spanish and Latin American literature, concentrating on women writers and the links between gender, language, and power. She has published a number of articles on writers from Spain, Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico, Chile, Puerto Rico, and the United States. She lived and studied in Spain and in Argentina, and has twice been a faculty member at UAF’s Study Abroad site in Oviedo, Spain. As dean for the Division of General Studies (undeclared baccalaureate students and premajors) she supervises the Academic Advising Center, Testing Services, the federally funded Student Support Services and Upward Bound (TRIO) Programs, Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Activity (URSA) and the Honors College.

 

Dr. Richard Collins has been with the university since 1994 and has been Director of the Graduate School since July 2021. As the director, Collins leads the graduate school, and oversees graduate programs, and monitors the progress of ~900 graduate students at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He also leads the graduate Interdisciplinary Studies program. His interests include the integration of research and teaching, and interdisciplinary research.

Before becoming Director, Dr. Collins was a professor of atmospheric sciences and served as Associate Director at the Geophysical Institute, where he established new research programs.  As a faculty member, Collins has studied the meteorology of the Arctic atmosphere. Working with UAF students, he has conducted various studies at Poker Flat Research Range (PFRR) that employed rockets, laser radars, and radars. He has served as an advisor to 18 master and doctoral students. These studies have focused on understanding the circulation of the middle and upper atmosphere, dispersion of volcanic ash clouds, clouds and aerosols in the upper atmosphere, and forest fire smoke. Collis participated in one study of fish in the Gulf of Alaska. This work was conducted with support from both NASA, NSF, and DoD. Collins served as a faculty member in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Atmospheric Sciences, where he developed and taught laboratory courses in digital electronics and state-wide distance courses in weather and climate. Collins was a Fulbright fellow at the Leibniz-Institute of Atmospheric Physics at Rostock University in 2006. He has served on national advisory boards for NASA and NSF. Collins received his Bachelor of Engineering from The National University of Ireland in 1986, his MS in Electrical Engineering from Case Western University in 1988, and his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois in 1993.

Carlson earned his Ph.D. in interdisciplinary studies in security and disaster management from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and his master’s in international relations from Webster University, St. Louis. Prior to joining UAF in 2003, Carlson devoted 25 years of active duty service in the U.S. Army, where he served in various leadership and staff roles. Carlson deployed extensively to the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Haiti and the Central Asian states, supporting humanitarian assistance, non-combatant evacuation, peacekeeping as well as operations supporting the Global War on Terrorism. In 2006, he retired from active duty service as a lieutenant colonel.

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Dr. Ginny Eckert is broadly trained in coastal ecology and coastal resource conservation science, with a MS from the University of Florida and a PhD from the University of California Santa Barbara. Dr. Eckert is the Director of Alaska Sea Grant and serves as a leader in the marine science community within Alaska, the west coast, and the US. Alaska has more coastline than the continental 48 states, and as such has significant challenges with marine debris, both in terms of the amount of coastline impacted and magnitude of marine debris. She has over two decades of experience as a professor of Fisheries at the University of Alaska. Her research focuses on issues of importance to coastal communities in Alaska, including conservation and management of top predators and sustainability of subsistence, sport and commercial fisheries.

Dr. Eckert brings a west coast, northern, and rural coastal community perspective to contribute to a diverse and inclusive working environment. Diversity and inclusion are top priorities in her career as seen in her work with Indigenous communities and as a mentor for high school, undergraduate and graduate students from underrepresented groups to increase participation of these groups in science.

Dr. Eckert has 15 years of experience on the North Pacific Fishery Management Council Crab Plan Team and works on a variety of fishery management issues, with a focus on commercially important crabs.  She also has 30 years of experience as coastal resource researcher, with a broad range of expertise, ranging from marine community ecology, ecology of fished marine invertebrates, socio-ecological systems, reproductive and larval biology of marine invertebrates, harmful algal blooms, diversity and inclusion in science, conventional and Indigenous aquaculture, evolution of life histories, long-term ecological and environmental monitoring, and community-based and citizen science. She has authored or co-authored more than 50 peer reviewed journal articles and 13 technical reports.

Chantelle McGinness has developed a passion for institutional research through ten years of service to the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the UA System. She earned a Master of Science in Statistics from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2013 after receiving a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Southern Polytechnic State University in 2008. Prior to joining UAF, Chantelle also provided administrative services to two grant-funded programs promoting postsecondary success for minority students at Southern Polytechnic State University.