Members of the Qawalangin Tribe of Unalaska chose Shayla Shaishnikoff as both council president and the organization’s interim leading executive.
Shaishnikoff and Helen Brown were appointed to two vacant council seats during a Feb. 14 tribal council meeting, and Shaishnikoff was named council president during the same meeting. She was tapped for interim administrator the next week. With Shaishnikoff and Brown seated, the council is back to full capacity. The pair will hold their seats for three years.
The tribe is still searching for a permanent administrator — that’s the tribe’s leading executive, whose duties are separate from the council.
Shaishnikoff takes the reins from former council president and interim tribal administrator Katherine McGlashan. McGlashan was chosen for both roles in October, but stepped down Feb. 11.
Last fall, tribal administrator Chris Price stepped down alongside tribal council president Nick Tutiakoff. Price held his position for five years before departing, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Shaishnikoff served as a staff member for the tribe from 2016 to 2023. She held multiple titles, the most recent being resilience project manager, an environmental role. She is also a director of the Ounalashka Corp. board, and attended school at the University of Alaska Anchorage and Western Washington University in Bellingham.
