Our Staff

Chugach Regional Resources Commission employs a staff of six people at its central office in Anchorage Alaska and eight staff at the Alutiiq Pride Marine Institute in Seward Alaska. Depending on specific projects, CRRC can have up 15 seasonal workers at the local level throughout the Chugach Region.

CRRC Staff

Willow Hetrick

Executive Director, CRRC

Mrs. Hetrick has a BA in marine resource management, and a MS in Natural Resources and Environmental Management and an MPA in Public Administration with a focus in Natural Resource Policy. She is born-and-raised in Prince William Sound and takes pride in serving the region to this day. Her educational background was focused in fisheries/marine biology, natural resource management, climate energy and food security, and environmental planning. She has ten years of professional environmental experience combined with a lifetime of local knowledge of Alaska’s natural resources and history. Her work experience includes a variety of marine and terrestrial biology research, collaborating on projects with state, federal, public, NGOs and private stakeholders, state and federal permitting, regulatory compliance, and cultural community sensitivities. She also has experience designing and implementing terrestrial and marine wildlife monitoring programs at remote locations and coordination for field environmental technicians and programs. Mrs. Hetrick has experience in climate change sustainability planning and how environmental effects of climate change, including coastal zone management, fish and wildlife management, sustainable energy, forest management, food security, land-use planning, and environmental equity and policy coordination, are affecting the region. As the regional environmental coordinator, she leads efforts on building administrative and communications capacity, water quality monitoring in villages, and development of geographic information systems for the organization.

Anchorage, Alaska

Patty Schwalenberg

Executive Director, AMBCC

Patty (Gii-wii-aa-si-no-kwe) is an enrolled member of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians. She was born and raised on her reservation in Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin, located on the northern border of the state. She and her family moved to Alaska in 1992 where she immediately started working with Alaska Native Tribes in western Alaska with her husband, Dewey. She has been blessed with three children, seven grandchildren, and her two dogs. Patty served as the Executive Director of CRRC for 23 years. In her retirement, she is serving as the Executive Director of the Alaska Migratory Bird Co-Management Council (AMBCC), the entity responsible for setting regulations for the spring-summer subsistence harvest of migratory birds. She has been honored with the Caleb Pungowiyi Award for Outstanding Achievements by an Alaska Native Individual or Organization by the Alaska Conservation Foundation (2017) and the Chief Sealth Award for Outstanding Contributions toward the Preservation, Protection and Prudent Conservation of this Nation’s Vital Fish and Wildlife Resources from the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society (2015). Throughout her career, Patty has organized many Tribal initiatives from the grass roots level, such as developing a region-wide integrated natural resource management plan for the Tribes of the Chugach Region; assisted Tribes to develop and build a fish hatchery, shellfish hatchery, mariculture farms, and grow-out facilities, as well as a sockeye enhancement program.

Anchorage, Alaska

Stephen Payton

IGAP Regional Environmental Coordinator

Bio Coming Soon

Seldovia, Alaska

Erin Shew

Climate Change Coordinator

Erin was born in Kenai, Alaska and spent her childhood in California and Louisiana. Despite the distance, she grew up hearing stories about her parents’ time in Alaska and eating moose meat and Alaskan salmon whenever her dad could return to hunt or fish. Her parents moved back in 2000, and she decided to follow in 2006 and pursue a career in the environmental field. Erin was fortunate to land an AmeriCorps position with the Native Village of Eyak, where she worked as an assistant to the IGAP coordinator and got her first taste of life off the road system, as well as gaining a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing Tribes in this region. In the time since, Erin has had worked and travel throughout rural Alaska, particularly in the Arctic, as a subsistence technician for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and a forestry technician for the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She left Alaska temporarily in 2016 to advise on Arctic and climate policy for the Obama administration, and has also provided research and leadership on climate adaptation and clean transportation initiatives in Louisiana and Michigan. Erin’s areas of expertise include climate change adaptation, sustainable development, and natural resource management policy, particularly in Alaska. In 2019, she returned to Alaska to be closer to family, starting as an AmeriCorps volunteer with CRRC and later transitioning to CRRC’s Climate Change Coordinator. In her current role, Erin provides research and administrative assistance on CRRC’s Climate Change and Intertribal Subsistence Alliance programs.

Anchorage, Alaska

Tanja Davis

Cost Control Specialist

Tanja Davis has specialized in Cost and Project Controls in various industries since 1993 to include the International Business sector and overseeing large scale import and export activities for multiple manufacturing industries in Germany as well as the United States. Ms. Davis joined Chugach Regional Resources in December 2020 and is responsible for cost controls, analysis and management, reporting and billing. In her free time, she enjoys the outdoors, riding horses and motorcycles, skiing, ice skating and playing table tennis. Tanja came to Alaska from New Orleans in 2010 to join her son and grandson and to welcome her granddaughter in 2012.

Anchorage, Alaska

Allison Carl

Research Scientist Intern

Allison Carl was born and raised in Anchorage and is currently finishing her B.S. in biological sciences at University of Alaska Anchorage. A partnership between Chugach Alaska Corporation (CAC) and Chugach Regional Resources Commission (CRRC) has allowed Allison to finish the CAC internship program as CRRC’s new Research Scientist Intern. Her educational and career interests include water and food security in Alaskan communities. During her down time, Allison enjoys spending time at local parks and trails around the Anchorage area.

Anchorage, Alaska

Hope Roberts

Inter-Tribal Liason

Hope is a resident of Valdez and is the Secretary of the Valdez Native Tribes Board of Directors. She is also the current Chair of the Valdez Advisory committee reporting to the Alaska Department of fish and game. Hope has an A.A. in Applied Business Management as well as an A.A. in Tribal Management from UAF. She owns and operates Surreel Saltwater’s Fishing charters in Valdez. Hope is Tlingit-Athabascan; her father is from Tanana and Texas and her mother is from Sitka and Circle, Alaska. She has three children (23, 18, 10) and fosters two Hispanic-Alaskan native boys under four years of age.

Valdez, Alaska

Christine Brummer

Fish & Wildlife Coordinator

Bio coming soon.

Anchorage, Alaska

Alutiiq Pride Marine Institute Staff

Jeff Hetrick

Hatchery Director

Jeff Hetrick is the Director of the Alutiiq Pride Shellfish Hatchery (APSH) and the Alaska Ocean Acidification Laboratory in Seward. APSH produces Oysters and Geoducks for the aquatic farm industry and produces Littleneck, Butter and Razor Clams for enhancement of beaches in south-central Alaska. APSH has developed hatchery technology for Red and Blue King Crabs, Pinto Abalone, Giant Red Sea Cucumber, Purple-Hinged Rock Scallop and Soft -Shell Clams and Basket Cockles and conducted numerous growth trials. The Ocean Acidification Lab provides continuous data of water quality from Resurrection Bay to various data portals, provides discrete sample analysis for 15 coastal partners and conducts OA exposure studies on various species produced at APSH. Jeff Hetrick has over 30 years of experience in the Alaskan aquaculture industry. He worked 20 years in the salmon enhancement industry working for Private Non-Profits and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game before taking over as Director of the Alutiiq Pride Shellfish Hatchery in 2002. Jeff has operated an oyster farm in Prince William Sound and is a founding member of the Alaskan Shellfish Growers Association.

Seward, Alaska