The Alaska Native Science & Engineering Program (ANSEP) appointed Dr. Michele Yatchmeneff as Chief Operating Officer. An ANSEP alumnus and the only Alaska Native with a doctoral degree in engineering education, Yatchmeneff will work alongside ANSEP Executive Director Matt Calhoun to further expand the program’s impact.
Yatchmeneff was previously ANSEP’s assistant director before becoming UAA’s executive director of Alaska Native Education and Outreach in 2021. Yatchmeneff will continue her work as a professor at UAA, where she is an active member of the chancellor’s cabinet, contributing to the Alaska Native Success Initiative.
An Unangax̂ from King Cove and False Pass, Yatchmeneff earned both her bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and master’s degree in engineering management from UAA. After becoming the first Alaska Native woman to teach in UAA’s College of Engineering, she earned her doctorate in engineering education from Purdue University, and she remains the only Alaska Native in the world with this distinction…