Board of Trustees

The Trustees board of directors consists of volunteers from in and out of Alaska who care about and support the work Trustees does to protect the lands, waters, animals and communities essential to Alaska’s health and future.

Chase Hensel

Board Chair

Chase Hensel is a cultural and linguistic anthropologist with more than thirty years experience working with Native people and Native languages in rural Alaska. His major research interests have included subsistence practices and traditional ecological knowledge. Retired from the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), he currently consults on Alaska Native language and culture curriculum development, and on litigation, often involving rural plaintiffs and defendants and/or rural court sites. He attended Washington State University and Cornell as an undergraduate, UAF for an MA and UC Berkeley for his Ph.D.

Chase Hensel
Marlyn Twitchell

Marlyn Twitchell

Board Vice-Chair

Marlyn Twitchell was born and raised in Juneau, Alaska, and has dedicated her career to protecting wild lands, wildlife and advancing Native rights in Alaska and beyond. She is currently a contract attorney, policy analyst and campaign consultant for nonprofit organizations and foundations. A graduate of Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon, she has served as director of a Northwest foundation, Environmental Litigation Director for the National Audubon Society, and Attorney at Alaska Legal Services and Earthjustice. She served on the Trustees board in the mid-1990s and currently serves on the board of Toxic Free Future in Seattle.

Jim Stratton

Board Member

Jim Stratton’s 35-year career working to protect Alaska’s public lands and waters started in Juneau with the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council just a few weeks after the Alaska Lands Act was signed. He subsequently moved to Anchorage where he worked for the Alaska Conservation Foundation, spent most of the Knowles Administration as the Director of Alaska State Parks and most recently put in over 12 years with the National Parks Conservation Association. He is now retired and spends his time hiking, birding and visiting national parks around the world. In addition to Trustees, he volunteers his time as a board member with Boreal Songbird Initiative and the Oregon Natural Desert Association. Jim holds a degree in Recreation and Parks Management from the University of Oregon and an MBA from Alaska Pacific University. Jim received a lifetime achievement award from the Alaska Conservation Foundation in 2020

Jim Stratton
Jane Sauer

Jane Sauer

Board Secretary

Jane Sauer has been a business attorney in Anchorage for more than 30 years. She represents small business clients throughout the State of Alaska in fields such as healthcare, architecture, engineering, construction, real estate, and tourism. Her clients also include Alaska Native corporations and non-profit organizations. Jane loves living in Alaska and the outdoor activities that are possible here. She is the mother of three grown sons, all of whom were born and raised and currently live in and love Alaska. Jane is a longtime supporter of Trustees for Alaska because she knows Trustees will protect Alaska’s wild places.

Michelle Meyer

Board Member

Michelle Meyer grew up in Southeast Alaska and now resides in the Seattle area of Washington state. Of Tlingit descent, Meyer is Raven moiety, Kwaashkikwaan Clan, Fort House from Yakutat, Alaska. Meyer’s passion is the preservation and protection of healthy, intact areas for gathering traditional foods and medicines. She works to fulfill her obligation to her Peoples’ ancestral lands because she knows their importance to the continuation of Tlingit culture. Meyer is a Western Washington University graduate and works in health care development and fundraising.

Michelle Myer