We have some big news: in preparation for our Role in the Islands & Remote Areas USDA Regional Food Business Center, AFPC has officially welcomed our second-ever staff member to the team. Sundance Visser of Homer, Alaska, joins us as our part-time Operations & Finance Director. She’s also serving as our AFPC Conference Planner and Alaska Food Hub Working Group Coordinator.
“I grew up in Iowa, and have been a resident of Alaska since 2006. I immediately fell in love with this place which has challenged me in many ways, and I am still learning. Like many Alaskans, my resume is a mile long (farm hand, wildfire dispatcher, English teacher, tour guide, hospital receptionist, kelp processor…). I spent nearly a decade working for a tour company in Fairbanks, where I realized that I had a knack for numbers and thrived behind the scenes. I switched from guiding to bookkeeping and got an accounting degree at UAF. Since then, I worked on a hydroponic farm, learned to speak Spanish in Mexico and Central America, completed UAF’s Certificate of Ethnobotany, and returned to Fairbanks at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Summer tourism jobs and winter travel opportunities were non-existent, so I decided it was time to return to school. I moved to Homer, Alaska, and received an MBA in Sustainable Organizations with a focus on food systems from Prescott College in 2022.
I’m thrilled to officially be joining AFPC as its half-time Operations and Finance Director. I have admired the work this organization does in Alaska and its passionate, talented volunteers around the state since I attended my first conference back in 2017. I co-presented a brand-new vocational training program for youth in Anchorage, cleverly wrapped up in a hydroponic farm, called Alaska Seeds of Change. At that job, I realized just how vibrant the community of food system supporters is in Alaska, and I was hooked! I’ve worked on a number of short-term projects for AFPC and am honored to move into a more permanent role. Though I will be busy filing receipts and running reports, I will still have time to get my hands dirty. Tell me about your projects at operations@alaskafoodpolicycouncil.org, and I hope you don’t mind if my cats crash our Zoom call!”
