Board of Trustees
The Trustees for Alaska 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. If you want to join Trustees as a board member, check out our jobs and opportunities page. We’d love to hear from you.
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.


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
