Board/Staff
The board meets monthly as a whole and also in committees working on our priority issue areas. Board members bring diverse experience and interest to the organization and remain committed to our mission to collect and disseminate information about Alaskan issues and problems, facilitate discussion, and to develop public policy, knowledge, and understanding among Alaskans.
Chair

Dick Mylius
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Dick has been on the Board of Directors of Alaska Common Ground since 2014. Dick has lived in Alaska since 1980. He retired from the Alaska Department of Natural Resources in December 2010, where he had worked for 29 years. From 2004 until retirement he was Director of the DNR Division of Mining, Land and Water. The Division manages all state-owned land. Since retiring, Dick has done natural resources consulting, natural resources related training, and various volunteer activities.
Dick holds a BA in Geography from the State University of New York and a Master of Regional Planning from the University of Michigan, School of Natural Resources. He has two adult daughters. Dick and his wife Sally Gibert have been members of Alaska Common Ground since its founding.
Vice Chair

Stephanie Nichols
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Stephanie joined Alaska Common Ground in 2018 and has worked as a Vice President and Attorney at GCI and was also the Founder and Executive Director of Seattle University School of Law’s Alaska Satellite Campus back in 2014. She created and taught courses in Alaska Native Law, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, and on Alaska’s Legal History.
Stephanie was born and raised in Fairbanks, Alaska, and received a degree in Accountancy from the University of Notre Dame and her Juris Doctorate from Seattle University. Prior to her work at GCI and the Law School, Stephanie was in-house counsel for an Indian tribe outside Seattle. In 2019, Stephanie was selected to receive the Marshall Memorial Fellowship, the German Marshall Fund’s flagship leadership program. It was created in 1982 to introduce a new generation of European leaders to the United States and now prepares leaders from both sides of the Atlantic for transatlantic relations. Stephanie returned home from this fellowship loving the United States more than she thought possible and also more than she thought necessary – and believes that freedom depends on a healthy democracy.
Treasurer

Chuck Gilbert
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Chuck arrived in Alaska in 1974 for a summer of adventure and never left. In the 1970s he worked for the National Park Service to help develop proposals for new park areas in Alaska, that culminated in passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act in 1980. He then became a planner, helping determine how the new parks would be managed, then the Lands Division, working on multiple lands issues—land exchanges, land acquisition, rights of way, title navigability, etc. Chuck has a great appreciation for the people and wonders of Alaska, and wants to work through ACG to make Alaska the best it can be.
Board Member

Janet Bidwell
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Board Member

Kari Gardey
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Kari was born in Alaska but grew up in England and California, finally to return to Alaska almost twenty-five years ago. She graduated from UC Berkeley with an undergraduate degree in geography and graduate degrees in City and Regional Planning and Landscape Architecture, with an emphasis on environmental planning. During her professional career, she has worked entirely with non-profits in a variety of roles, including educating advocates on how to use GIS datasets with Ecotrust; researching water conservation and recycling with the Conservation Law Foundation; managing volunteers for Earthwatch; coordinating programs for Alaska World Affairs Council; managing outreach for Partners for Progress; and for twenty years as Program Manager, managing membership, public programs, board support, databases, and grant writing for Alaska Common Ground.
Since leaving her program manager role in 2023 she has been honored to join the Alaska Common Ground board. She finds the mission compelling and something she has been proud to work towards for so long and plans to continue working on unbiased, nonpartisan programs that help inform an engaged Alaskan democracy.
Board Member

Cliff Groh
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Board Member

Mary Lu Harle
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Secretary

Hannah Laird
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Board Member

Janet McCabe
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Janet worked as a planner for state and federal entities, including the Federal-State Land Use Planning Commission that guided the creation of Alaska’s National Interest Lands. She was Regional Director of the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service, Special Assistant to the Regional Director of the National Park Service, and retired from NPS in 2000. Since then she has been a full-time volunteer with community service organizations, primarily in fields of therapeutic justice, reduction of criminal recidivism, cultural and historic preservation and community organization.
Board Member

Likka McCauley
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Board Member

John Parsi
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Board Member

Katie Severin
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Board Member

Peg Tileston
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Public policy has been a passion for Peg since college. She was raised on a large farm, attended college and taught in Indiana, moved to Colorado, and Maryland before arriving in Anchorage in 1972 where she quickly became involved in environmental advocacy. This led to service on the Alaska Water Board from 1976 to 1991, the Chugach Electric Association Board of Directors from 1981 to 1991, and several municipal and state advisory committees. Peg helped reorganize the Alaska Center for the Environment, co-founded the Alaska Conservation Foundation and Trustees for Alaska. 1991 Peg joined Esther Wunnicke and several others to found Alaska Common Ground to encourage Alaska citizens to become more knowledgeable and involved in state policies. She has served on the Alaska Common Ground board since the organization began. Peg was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Law Degree from the University of Alaska Anchorage in 2009, and the Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame in 2010. She and Jules have three daughters, Nancy, Anna and Gloria and two granddaughters, Erin and Emily.
Board Member

Danielle Williams
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Program Coordinator
