Category: Press Release

Wasilla, Alaska – The Mat-Su Health Foundation (MSHF) is working to develop a vibrant, mixed-use Community Health Campus on land it owns surrounding Mat-Su Regional Medical Center and is seeking input from the public about the project. Mat-Su residents are encouraged to complete the Mat-Su Community Health Campus Project Survey now through March 31, 2021, at matsucommunityhealthcampus.org.

MSHF contracted with HDR, Inc. to create a master plan that will help provide a long-range vision for how the community health campus can best be designed to serve as a center for health and wellness. The plan will include a long-range vision for the campus that:

• Develops a vibrant center for health and wellness in the Mat-Su;
• Fosters growth of a community health-based campus;
• Considers long-range community health campus expansion, including mobility and parking needs, future health services, and complementary services; and
• Understands community needs and values.

Written project comments and requests to receive a hard-copy survey can be submitted to the project team via email to info@matsucommunityhealthcampus.org or by mail to MSHF Mat-Su Community Health Campus Master Plan, 777 N Crusey Street, Ste. A201, Wasilla, AK 99654

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About Mat-Su health Foundation: Mat-Su Health Foundation (MSHF) is the official business name of Valley Hospital Association, Inc., which shares ownership in Mat-Su Regional Medical Center. In this capacity, MSHF board members and representatives actively participate in the governance of Mat-Su’s community hospital to protect the community’s interest in this important healthcare institution. The MSHF mission is to improve the health and wellness of Alaskans living in the Mat-Su and the tools it uses include grantmaking, convening of local partners, and policy change. The foundation’s work has resulted in significant improvements in systems that support the health of Mat-Su residents in areas such as behavioral health, child welfare, crisis response, community connections, workforce development, transportation, housing, and senior services. More information is available at www.healthymatsu.org.

 

We grieve.  We grieve again.  We have watched yet another video of police restraining a person of color.  This time it was in Wasilla. This time it was local police kneeling on an Alaska Native woman, then hogtying her and taking her to their police car.   It goes on for over eight minutes. Thank goodness she could breathe.

The event and the videos create recurring trauma for people of color.  Our Alaska Native friends and colleagues tell us that when they watched that video, they pictured their nieces, nephews, and siblings.  They worry in terror that their family members will be treated that way because violence toward Alaska Native peoples and people of color has been going on for hundreds of years in America.  With each generation, it looks different, but the violence persists.  They remember other physical, emotional, and cultural assaults experienced by friends and family at the hands of law enforcement, many other institutions, and by individual citizens.

The repeated humiliations, which we watch over and over and over on social media and the news, are exhausting to the soul.  They make it hard to breathe.  While the place, circumstances, and faces change, the agony is always present.

We also grieve for law enforcement.  Law enforcement officers are on the front lines of these crises, and they risk their lives every day.  Just two months ago, a Wasilla police officer was shot after a traffic stop. Any use of force is trauma to the officer as well. They are under enormous stress and are the ones we rely on to respond when all our other systems or interventions fail us.

None of these parties likes the attention they generate.  These situations and videos are painful for law enforcement, scary for bystanders, and heartbreaking for families.  We second guess every move of all the players and justify positions. But that does not move us forward.

These same Alaska Native colleagues ask and invite us to build bridges where these actions and assaults divide.  They ask us to build community and belonging for Alaska Native peoples and all people.  They ask us to help usher understanding, to see—really see—each other as human beings.

Members of the AK Funders Group have supported many types of efforts, programs, and priorities to move this understanding forward.  We are committed to ensuring a diversity of voices in our boardrooms and staff.  We share our learning journeys with each other and with our partners.

The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority (Trust) is actively working to develop improved mental health crisis response systems in Anchorage, Mat-Su, and Fairbanks.  The Trust is working with the State and numerous community partners to implement the Crisis Now model – which is working in many communities across the nation to prevent suicide, reduce wait times in Emergency Departments and correctional settings, and to provide the best supports to individuals in crisis.  In addition, the Mat-Su Health Foundation, in partnership with the Trust, and law enforcement has supported the formation of a Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Coalition that has launched three Crisis Intervention Training Academies in Mat-Su. CIT Training was developed by law enforcement to give officers the tools and practices to effectively deescalate situations and reduce unnecessary individual and officer harm.

The Alaska Native Justice Center’s team provides essential advocacy support on behalf of Our People and direct services to survivors of crime, tribal representation in child welfare cases, assistance to those re-entering from incarceration, and essential guidance for those navigating the justice system.  ANJC also provides a voice in local and statewide conversations and decisions about how to address disproportionality in victimization, incarceration, and child welfare for Alaska Native people in the justice system.

Rasmuson Foundation convenes diverse leaders from across the state to listen and learn – and take action. This last year, we worked with partners on a video that makes clear we stand with the Black community of Alaska. We provided grant support to organizations that serve Alaska’s diverse communities. In the works: a multi-media storytelling project to further amplify diverse Alaska voices.

We certainly do not have all the answers. We do believe if we work together, we can prevent these kinds of situations.  We can find more dignified ways to help people suffering a crisis.  The AK Funders Group is committed to continuing and encouraging courageous conversations across our great state that will lead to understanding, appreciation, and celebration of the many peoples that call Alaska home. Please join us in forging these connections across color, creed, and community where you live, work, play and pray.

Elizabeth Ripley, President/CEO, Mat-Su Health Foundation

Mike Abbott, CEO, Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority

Gail Schubert, Board Chair, Alaska Native Justice Center

Michelle DeWitt, Executive Director, Bethel Community Services Foundation

Diane Kaplan, President/CEO, Rasmuson Foundation

John Rozzi, CEO, Valley Charities, Inc.

Tom Schulz, Superior Court Judge (RET)

Desiré Shepler, President/CEO, Alaska Family Services

Stephanie Allen, Executive Director, United Way of Mat-Su

Michael D. Miller, Executive Director, Homer Foundation

Wasilla, Alaska – The Mat-Su Health Foundation (MSHF) has welcomed Evie Shields to its team in the role of assistant controller. Shields is responsible for all day-to-day accounting operations including functional responsibility over accounting, accounts payable, accounts receivable and payroll. With nearly 27 years in her field, she brings a wealth of knowledge to the foundation. Most recently she worked at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium where she spent more than 10 years as both the accounting manager and operations manager. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a specialization in accounting with a minor in mathematics from Wayland Baptist University in Anchorage.

Vandana Ingle was promoted to senior program officer. Ingle oversees the foundation’s Healthy Futures focus area, leading workforce development efforts to ensure that Mat-Su residents are served by a trained and qualified healthcare workforce. She also manages the foundation’s academic and vocational scholarship programs. Ingle was hired by the foundation in 2016 as a program associate and promoted to program officer in 2018. Prior to joining the MSHF team, she served as director of development and communication at Frontline Mission. Ingle earned a master’s degree in communications media for children from SNDT College, India, a bachelor’s degree in ministry from Nazarene Bible College in Colorado Springs, and a bachelor’s degree in commerce/banking and finance from the University of Poona, India.

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About Mat-Su health Foundation: Mat-Su Health Foundation (MSHF) is the official business name of Valley Hospital Association, Inc., which shares ownership in Mat-Su Regional Medical Center. In this capacity, MSHF board members and representatives actively participate in the governance of Mat-Su’s community hospital to protect the community’s interest in this important healthcare institution. The MSHF mission is to improve the health and wellness of Alaskans living in the Mat-Su and the tools it uses include grantmaking, convening of local partners, and policy change. The foundation’s work has resulted in significant improvements in systems that support the health of Mat-Su residents in areas such as behavioral health, child welfare, crisis response, community connections, workforce development, transportation, housing, and senior services. More information is available at www.healthymatsu.org.

 

Wasilla, Alaska — The Mat-Su Health Foundation (MSHF) has hired Karen Koenemann as its new vice president of programs. Koenemann began her new position on January 11, 2021. She reports to Elizabeth Ripley, MSHF president and chief executive officer.

“After a nationwide search, we are confident we made the right choice in welcoming Karen Koenemann to the Mat-Su Health Foundation team,” said Ripley. “We are especially grateful to tap into her extensive experience with the public health framework on which we operate and are excited about her commitment to ensuring health equity for everyone in the community. She comes from the front lines of Colorado’s COVID-19 response and will inform our work in that arena as well.”

Koenemann leads the foundation’s program team and is responsible for grant making, strategic planning, the convening of local and statewide partners, and supporting the policy and systems change that will lead to lasting impact in the community. She will help the foundation innovate and grow so that it can better serve the community, resulting in measurable improvement in the health of Mat-Su residents. Koenemann leads a growing, high-performing program team and will help deepen a culture that aligns with the core values, team principles and commitments of the MSHF. In addition, she will help redefine what change and success mean for the foundation by better connecting the strategic vision, focus area goals and programmatic strategy.

“I’m thrilled to be returning to Alaska and to becoming part of the Mat-Su community,” said Koenemann. “As they say, you can leave Alaska, but it never really leaves you. An opportunity like this comes along only once in a career, and I am ready to go all-in supporting our mission of improving the health and wellness of Alaskans living in the Mat-Su and our vision of a community where all persons have the opportunity for a healthy life.”

Koenemann was previously the public health director for Pitkin County Public Health in Colorado, where she served as the COVID-19 Response and Recovery chief health strategist and provided crisis leadership through strategic and tactical methods in the face of the pandemic. Prior to that she worked for Eagle County Public Health as the healthy communities manager and as the executive director for the Red Ribbon Project. She holds a master’s degree in teaching from the University of Alaska, a master’s degree in geography from the University of Wyoming and a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from the University of Alaska.

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About Mat-Su health Foundation: Mat-Su Health Foundation (MSHF) is the official business name of Valley Hospital Association, Inc., which shares ownership in Mat-Su Regional Medical Center. In this capacity, MSHF board members and representatives actively participate in the governance of Mat-Su’s community hospital to protect the community’s interest in this important healthcare institution. The MSHF mission is to improve the health and wellness of Alaskans living in the Mat-Su and the tools it uses include grantmaking, convening of local partners, and policy change. The foundation’s work has resulted in significant improvements in systems that support the health of Mat-Su residents in areas such as behavioral health, child welfare, crisis response, community connections, workforce development, transportation, housing, and senior services. More information is available at www.healthymatsu.org.

 

Wasilla, Alaska – The Mat-Su Health Foundation (MSHF) has welcomed two new employees. Shirley Kelly was hired as director of operations and Kelsey Shields as program assistant.

As director of operations, Kelly oversees office management, human resources and contract management for the foundation. Her responsibilities include ensuring a high level of coordination between the foundation’s programmatic work and hospital ownership, and she assists in the design of organizational structures, workflows, and processes. Kelly brings a wealth of experience in human resources to the foundation. She holds Master of Arts degree in management with a specialization in human resources from Wayland Baptist University.

In her new role as program assistant, Shields serves as the primary contact for MSHF scholarship inquiries from prospective and returning applicants, training providers, universities, colleges, and the general public. She also provides support to the other members of the foundation’s program team by assisting with planning, scheduling, and implementation of convenings and other program-related events. Prior to joining MSHF, Shields worked in a variety of industries providing administrative and customer relations management support. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in film and media studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

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About Mat-Su health Foundation: Mat-Su Health Foundation (MSHF) is the official business name of Valley Hospital Association, Inc., which shares ownership in Mat-Su Regional Medical Center. In this capacity, MSHF board members and representatives actively participate in the governance of Mat-Su’s community hospital to protect the community’s interest in this important healthcare institution. The MSHF mission is to improve the health and wellness of Alaskans living in the Mat-Su and the tools it uses include grantmaking, convening of local partners, and policy change. The foundation’s work has resulted in significant improvements in systems that support the health of Mat-Su residents in areas such as behavioral health, child welfare, crisis response, community connections, workforce development, transportation, housing, and senior services. More information is available at www.healthymatsu.org.

Wasilla, Alaska – Local community resource center Connect Mat-Su has launched a new website at www.connectmatsu.org. The new site gives residents easy access to the largest known database of support services available in the Mat-Su.

Connect Mat-Su was developed by the Mat-Su Health Foundation and community partners to be a comprehensive and innovative health and social services information and referral resource center. It links residents with access to the information, referrals, and direct assistance they need to thrive physically, mentally, socially and emotionally.

“Connect Mat-Su was designed to support the vision that every person in the Mat-Su has access to all that is needed to live a healthy and fulfilling life,” said Mat-Su Health Foundation CEO Elizabeth Ripley. “The service offers many kinds of assistance, including information about how to access food, housing, healthcare, elder care, childcare, and even the social connections that are such an important part of good health.”

Connect Mat-Su Director Ashley Peltier stated, “One of the things that sets Connect Mat-Su apart from other resource centers is the tailored experience we provide. Clients have the option to search hundreds of local resources on the Connect Mat-Su website, or they can call us for a more personalized experience that includes taking time to understand their individual needs, offering options, helping to navigate the options, and providing warm handoffs for further assistance.”

Connect Mat-Su has been in operation since April 2018, offering service by phone and in-person at the Mat-Su Health Foundation offices until the building was temporarily closed to the public due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “The new Connect Mat-Su website comes when it is needed most, making it easier for residents to access resources,” said Ripley.

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About Mat-Su health Foundation: Mat-Su Health Foundation (MSHF) is the official business name of Valley Hospital Association, Inc., which shares ownership in Mat-Su Regional Medical Center. In this capacity, MSHF board members and representatives actively participate in the governance of Mat-Su’s community hospital to protect the community’s interest in this important healthcare institution. The MSHF mission is to improve the health and wellness of Alaskans living in the Mat-Su and the tools it uses include grantmaking, convening of local partners, and policy change. The foundation’s work has resulted in significant improvements in systems that support the health of Mat-Su residents in areas such as behavioral health, child welfare, crisis response, community connections, workforce development, transportation, housing, and senior services. More information is available at www.healthymatsu.org.

Wasilla, Alaska – The Mat-Su Health Foundation (MSHF) has announced that Jessie Burbank has joined the Connect Mat-Su team in the role of community resource specialist and Tracy Kalytiak has been promoted to the position of program officer.

In her role as community resource specialist, Burbank is the first point of contact for Connect Mat-Su, a social services information and referral resource center operated by the Mat-Su Health Foundation. Burbank provides social service navigation and referrals and works to develop and maintain an extensive database of resources available in the community. She brings a wealth of experience advocating for those in need. Most recently, Burbank worked at The Children’s Place where she assisted children and families impacted by child abuse. She graduated from the University of Alaska Anchorage with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and a minor in women’s studies.

Kalytiak was promoted to program officer after having served as program associate for three years. She will continue her work on the foundation’s Target Wellness and Coronavirus Prevention and Response (CPR) grant programs. Kalytiak also oversees MSHF sponsorships and its technical assistance pool for grantees. Prior to being hired by the foundation, she worked as a writer and editor at the University of Alaska Anchorage and at several publications, including Alaska Magazine, Alaska Business Monthly and the Frontiersman. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Central Arkansas.

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About Mat-Su Health Foundation: Mat-Su Health Foundation (MSHF) is the official business name of Valley Hospital Association, Inc., which shares ownership in Mat-Su Regional Medical Center. In this capacity, MSHF board members and representatives actively participate in the governance of Mat-Su’s community hospital to protect the community’s interest in this important healthcare institution. The MSHF mission is to improve the health and wellness of Alaskans living in the Mat-Su and the tools it uses include grantmaking, convening of local partners, and policy change. The foundation’s work has resulted in significant improvements in systems that support the health of Mat-Su residents in areas such as behavioral health, child welfare, crisis response, community connections, workforce development, transportation, housing, and senior services. More information is available at www.healthymatsu.org.

About Connect Mat-Su: Connect Mat-Su was developed by the Mat-Su Health Foundation and community partners to be a comprehensive and innovative health and social services information and referral resource center serving all residents of Mat-Su. It is a network that is both a physical and virtual resource center linking residents with immediate access to the information, referrals, and direct assistance needed to thrive physically, mentally, socially and emotionally.  More information is available at connectmatsu.org.

Wasilla, Alaska – The Mat-Su Health Foundation (MSHF) has announced that Megan Wilbur has joined the R.O.C.K. Mat-Su team in the position of systems coordinator. Along with this new hire, MSHF also announced the promotion of two employees, Jaye Salter and Brian Tiefenbrun.

As systems coordinator, Wilbur is responsible for helping to drive R.O.C.K. Mat-Su’s strategic work forward by supporting day-to-day communications and administration, community engagement, and data functions, as well as for building and maintaining strong relationships with community partners. R.O.C.K. Mat-Su is a collaborative of community members who have joined together to promote family resilience and reduce child maltreatment. Wilbur came to R.O.C.K. Mat-Su from the University of Alaska Anchorage where she was a student conduct and ethical development coordinator. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Tiefenbrun was promoted to operations coordinator for Connect Mat-Su. Connect Mat-Su was created by the foundation and community partners to be a comprehensive and innovative health and social services information and referral resource center serving all residents of Mat-Su. In his new position, he maintains, updates, and refines the network’s resource database and website integration. Previously, Tiefenbrun served as Connect Mat-Su’s community resource center specialist.  Prior to that, he worked as an investigator for the State of Alaska, Office of Children’s Services. Tiefenbrun is a veteran of the U.S. Army and has also worked at North Star Behavioral Health. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from American Military University.

Salter was promoted to full-time administrative assistant for the Mat-Su Health Foundation. In her new role, she serves as receptionist and provides clerical and administrative support for the organization. Salter brings a wealth of experience from customer-facing positions across a range of industries. She attended Palmer High School and Mat-Su College.

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Mat-Su Health Foundation (MSHF) is the official business name of Valley Hospital Association, Inc., which shares ownership in Mat-Su Regional Medical Center. In this capacity, MSHF board members and representatives actively participate in the governance of Mat-Su’s community hospital to protect the community’s interest in this important healthcare institution. The MSHF mission is to improve the health and wellness of Alaskans living in the Mat-Su and the tools it uses include grantmaking, convening of local partners, and policy change. The foundation’s work has resulted in significant improvements in systems that support the health of Mat-Su residents in areas such as behavioral health, child welfare, crisis response, community connections, workforce development, transportation, housing, and senior services. More information is available at www.healthymatsu.org .