Northwest Arctic leadership team invests in people: group works cooperatively and collaboratively.

• Author: Stricker, Julie
• Position: ALASKA NATIVE CORPORATIONS

Traditional Inupiat culture is strong in Northwest Alaska. When regional health provider Maniilaq Association commissioned a study of what elders in the region wanted and needed as far as services in 1997, they were told unequivocally that the elders preferred to stay home so friends and relatives could visit. However, if they had to live in an assisted-living facility, they wanted to stay in the region.

The region, however, is remote and sparsely populated. Located mostly above the Arctic Circle, the Northwest Arctic Borough consists of eleven villages with a total population of about 7,400 people. No roads connect the communities. Nearly half live in the community of Kotzebue, located on a narrow spit of land off the Bering Strait. More than three-quarters of the residents are Inupiat Eskimo.

So the completion of the eighteen-bed Utuqanaat Inaat Elder Care Center in 2011 was a milestone. Planning and construction for the facility took years. Maniilaq received the first round of funding, $7 million, from the state and began construction in 2009. But the $10.2 million needed to complete the facility was slow to materialize. It was finally approved after the region's four major public and private institutions--Maniilaq, the Northwest Arctic Borough, NANA Regional Corporation, and the Northwest Arctic Borough School District--worked together to get the final funding pushed through the Alaska Legislature.

NWALT

The four organizations form an extraordinary partnership that works to the benefit of all in Northwest Alaska. It is a testament to the spirit of cooperation that is a hallmark of the Inupiat people, says Marie Greene, president and CEO of NANA Regional Corporation.

"At NANA, time is taken to reach out the shareholders and the villages, to listen to what our shareholders are saying and what they see as the priorities," Greene says. "We are a region known for its unity because our past leadership taught us this is how it is done, and we continue to pass that on. This is why we have the Northwest Arctic Leadership Team [NWALT], so we can work closely together, as organizations, for our people. Our cooperation and collaboration is what defines us as a region."

NWALT's goal is to work cooperatively to promote projects and address problems facing the residents of Northwest Alaska while honoring and perpetuating Inupiat cultural heritage.

Prioritizing Elders

According to Fred Smith, director of economic development for the Northwest Arctic...