The Ounalashka Corp., Unalaska’s Native village corporation, recently chose Laresa Syverson as their new president following Denise Rankin’s departure. Rankin spent the last three years as president and 27 years with the corporation.
Syverson most recently served as the corporation’s technical lands manager. She’s coming into her role as president with a focus on day-to-day operations, which include the ongoing removal of World War II military contamination from those lands.
KUCB’s Andy Lusk sat down with Syverson to hear more about her plans for the job, the future of the corporation, as well as local land plans and renewable energy options.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
TRANSCRIPTION:
Andy Lusk: In this new role, what are you looking forward to accomplishing?
Laresa Syverson: We have a lot of irons in the fire. We have a lot of projects going on, but honestly, my main goal is to work more in depth with each of our departments, iron out our workflows and make sure we're being efficient. We're working a lot on the culture of our workspace, and forming good relationships with all of our customers and our business associates, and bringing the best out of each employee.
Lusk: OC is working to clean some contaminated lands and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is involved with this, too. What are some of the sites that you're prioritizing right now?
Syverson: We had some really good Restoration Advisory Board meetings where we were able to work with the Army Corps on our priority sites, and they were pretty receptive to that.
Most of our priority sites are in the marine industrial areas — essentially all of Amaknak Island, Ballyhoo, the Delta Western area. Strawberry Hill is a really big priority for us right now, we would really like to have that clean and developable. It's got an amazing view no matter which direction you're looking. We also have a priority site at Little South America, because that's a busy recreation area, but it's also essentially part of our deep water port, so we'd like to be able to at least plan for how we could use that better. And it's also near the Fishermen's Memorial, which is going into place very soon, and we're very excited about that with the city and the Rusting Man Foundation. A couple other priority sites are Summer Bay and Humpy Cove.
These are all sites that you're probably going to see people working at this summer, actually. Everybody is mobilizing and gearing up. They're doing their drone surveys. They're doing their sampling. We even got a big drill rig so we could do the core sampling. So we're really excited, and we're really just focused on keeping those going, working with the Army Corps of Engineer on our priority sites so that we can either close them out or just get them closer to being closed out in the next five years.
Lusk: Well, that is exciting. It sounds like there's going to be movement on that over the summer. I'm looking forward to seeing crews get out there and talk to them when they're there.
But in the meantime, I did want to talk a little bit about the Arctic Energy Ambassador Program. You are the ambassador for the Aleutians. So for folks who just aren't familiar with what that means, can you tell us what that is?
Syverson: It's a really great program through the Arctic Energy Office, and it really aims to connect each region with the Arctic Energy Office and the [Department of Energy] and get the communication flowing both ways.
I think the original intent was to get feedback about what is working and what is not working for renewable energy projects in our region. I don't know if you know this, but we actually have a wide variety of renewable energy projects that people are pursuing. Some of the most successful ones have been the hydroelectric dams — they have one in Akutan, we have a very small one here in our watershed and they have one in Atka. I think they're all looking at improving them and getting a little bit more out of them.
We also have, of course, Makushin geothermal, which has been on our agenda for about five years now, so we are still pursuing that. We're also hoping to participate in a gaps analysis study with [the National Renewable Energy Laboratory] for more research for geothermal in the region, just identifying where the gaps are in the research.
And there's also a really good option for solar here, I'm learning. So I'm actually doing a solar feasibility study right now with [the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium] — that’s a super awesome group. Just had a meeting with them today. And we're looking at Ballyhoo because it's kind of like a conical shape where you can get a lot of sunlight from a lot of different angles. I hope to have more news on that soon.
Lusk: With the Arctic Energy Ambassador position, does that role change at all for you now that you're president of the Ounalashka Corp.?
Syverson: I think, honestly, it doesn't change a whole lot. I might have more authority to speak more publicly, like I am right now, on the program and how it's working with our land plan. If it will help me make more decisions, I think that would be a really positive thing.
Lusk: Are there any other things that you want to talk about, or anything else about this new position that's on your mind?
Syverson: [CEO] Natalie Cale and Denise Rankin have been working very closely with me the last three years, and especially the last year, because of the CEO mentor program with OC. So I'd really like to give them both a shoutout for all of their dedication to succession planning at OC. It's something that had kind of fallen to the wayside for a couple years, but they're picking it back up. Denise and Natalie have done a wonderful job with hosting the mentor program and bringing me up to speed on all of all of what OC does, can do and should be able to do, and our rights as landowners.
I think I bring a good portion of the cultural aspect into it, like Unangam Tunuu and being familiar with all of our resources and our lands. So I’m looking forward to pairing all of that institutional knowledge with my knowledge, and I’m hoping for a really good summer — and, you know, beyond.
