Crockett gets the job done: new AMA executive director already tested in fire.

• Author: Lochner, Mary
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Mining - Alaska Miners Association - Deantha Crockett - Biography

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Deantha Crockett grew up with Alaska resource development. Her mother, Marilyn Crockett, was director of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, and her dad ran a transportation company. When Permanent Fund Dividend time came around, the family put the money into college savings accounts, except for $50 each child was allowed to spend. Crockett's mother would be sure to impress upon her children that the dividend is a benefit from Alaska's oil and gas industry.

"The oil industry literally put food on my table and sent me to college," Crockett says. "I recognize the importance of what resource development does for our state."

Crockett, the new executive director of the Alaska Miners Association since June 1, has spent her adult life working for resource development in the state. As a political science major at University of Alaska Anchorage, she spent two years interning at the Resource Development Council for its annual conference in November. As a volunteer helping with the conference's scheduling and logistics, she made a strong impression on the council. After she graduated college, she was the council's first pick for a new project coordinator.

Pebble Limited Partnership Chief Executive Officer John Shively was president of the board at RDC at the time.

"We had a position open and the executive director came to me and said: 'We should probably be advertising this position, but I want to hire Deantha. And I said, 'Hire Deantha.'" Shively says. "She turned out to be a really outstanding employee, and got experience in a variety of different issues around the state, particularly mining." Crockett worked as an RDC project coordinator for eight years starting in 2005. Her main focus areas were mining and tourism. Both industries suffered political onslaughts during her tenure.

In 2006, voters approved the Cruise Ship Bed Tax.

"It drove the costs up and made it so the cruise companies took their ships out of Alaska and sent them somewhere else," Crockett says. In response to that initiative, she started the Alaska Alliance for Cruise Travel, or Alaska ACT. Under the new organization, she brought the cruise ship industry and the businesses that depend on it under one umbrella, and actively fought for a reduction in the new tax. After a lot of outreach and hard work, Alaska ACT achieved the compromise it was looking for when the Alaska Legislature passed a bill to reduce the head tax by $11.50 per person in 2010.

"It got...