Michelle has been a resident of Fairbanks for over 35 years and has held held many administrative positions in the UA system before retiring and entering the private sector. She came out of retirement and joined Summer Sessions & Lifelong Learning (SSLL) in 2003. Michelle shares her creative energy in building the multiple facets of Summer Sessions & Lifelong Learning. She enjoys her four granddaughters, scuba diving and traveling the world.

Spencer grew up right here in Fairbanks, graduating from West Valley High School in 2014 and (after some travels abroad) from UAF in 2020 with a bachelor's in Psychology. He first joined the Summer Sessions team as a student in 2017 before stepping into a full time position after his graduation. If you've had a child in one of our kids' programs in the last few years, you've almost certainly been in correspondence with Spencer!

In his free time, Spencer enjoys gardening, hiking, video games, making new friends, and dancing to live music (when it's safe to do so again).

 

Mark has moved out of the Summer Sessions office, but he has not gone far. He has relocated to the Signers Business Office and although he is no longer the primary contact for Summer Sessions fiscal questions, he will still be able to help as we transition. If you have HR or fiscal questions for Summer Sessions, please contact Katie Kennedy.

Having visited numerous countries, all 50 United States and multiple US protectorates Mark settled into his first "home" in Fairbanks, AK in 1999. After sailing the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans on submarines for the Navy, working in civilian nuclear power plants and spending 10 years in the hospitality industry, Mark joined UAF in 2010 and is currently the Fiscal Officer for Summer Sessions & Lifelong Learning.

In their free time, Mark and his beautiful wife enjoy their futile attempts to train their two cats and are avid fans of hockey (they love the Nanooks and wish the the Avalanche would do something...anything), reading, gaming and traveling

Katie arrived in Alaska in 1990 for a summer job and found she had discovered her true home. She has worked at the University of Alaska since 2005 and enjoys investing her energy in the development of Summer Sessions programming. Katie enjoys hiking, traveling, mapmaking, and playing the marimba.

Katie T. is a lifelong Alaskan who has lived in Fairbanks since 2008, when she first attended UAF. She has graduated with a Bachelors in Art, and completed a Masters in Education in 2016. Since then, she's worked in a variety of programs and businesses in the Fairbanks area, tourism to art education, and found her way to Summer Sessions in the summer of 2018. 

Katie uses her artistic energy and skils to create locally sourced and inspired art, and delights in spending time outdoors around Alaska. She is an avid reader and tinkerer, and is always up to something if she isn't helping Summer Sessions with K-12 programming. 

Laura has been helping Summer Sessions with multiple projects over the past few years, specializing in organizing our free summer events, and helping with the logistics of our K-12 outreach.