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Meritorious Service Awards
Robert Byrd, Emily Edenshaw, Steve Holmberg and Togi Letuligasenoa will receive Meritorious Service Awards. Meritorious Service Awards recognize significant public, academic, volunteer or philanthropic service to the university or an Alaska community. UAF will celebrate Byrd, Edenshaw, Holmberg and Letuligasenoa at this year’s Honoree Recognition Ceremony on Friday, May 2, at 5 p.m. at the Davis Concert Hall on the Troth Yeddha’ Campus in ´ºË®ÌÃÊÓƵ.
Robert Byrd
For his support and encouragement of university students
Mr. Robert Byrd is a generous supporter of graduate students’ research at the University of Alaska ´ºË®ÌÃÊÓƵ who also takes a personal interest in the success of those students.
Mr. Byrd was educated in marine engineering at the U.S. Coast Guard before graduating from UAF with a master’s degree in ocean engineering in 1972. He then worked on offshore platforms in Norway before earning a doctorate in structural engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1978. He enjoyed a successful career in ocean engineering, specializing in offshore platform decommissioning. He lives outside Houston, Texas.
Mr. Byrd has contributed approximately $57,000 over 13 years to UAF, primarily benefiting graduate students at the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. The Robert Byrd Marine Biology and Oceanography Graduate Support Fund has provided the essential but hard-to-find funding for travel, supplies and contractual services needed by graduate students as they pursue their research.
Mr. Byrd also has demonstrated his sincere interest in the graduate students by traveling to ´ºË®ÌÃÊÓƵ to meet them, a mutually enjoyable experience.
Emily Edenshaw
For her advocacy and service on behalf of the university
Ms. Emily Edenshaw is an esteemed member of the ´ºË®ÌÃÊÓƵ community who not only advocates for the institution but also is studying for a doctorate.
Ms. Edenshaw, president and CEO of the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage, has an impressive record of board service for nonprofit groups such as the Alaska Travel Industry Association, the Alaska Humanities Forum, the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness and several other organizations.
Yet she gladly accepted UAF’s invitation to also serve on the committee building support for the Troth Yeddha’ Indigenous Studies Center. Her dedication will ensure that future UAF students have a place that reinforces their sense of identity and belonging.
Ms. Edenshaw was born in ´ºË®ÌÃÊÓƵ and has ancestral roots in the lower Yukon River village of Emmonak, where she is a tribal citizen. She is a shareholder of Doyon Ltd. and the Calista Corp., the Alaska Native regional corporations based respectively in Interior and Southwest Alaska.
As a UAF doctoral student, Ms. Edenshaw is researching Alaska Native boarding school history and strategies for healing from the experiences there.
Steve Holmberg
For his service and generosity on behalf of the university
Mr. Steve Holmberg is an inspiring advocate for music education at the University of Alaska ´ºË®ÌÃÊÓƵ and a generous supporter of efforts to provide such tutelage to students beginning at a young age.
Mr. Holmberg grew up in ´ºË®ÌÃÊÓƵ, where he spent summers attending the UAF Summer Fine Arts Camp, a monthlong program then largely taught by UAF faculty. He earned a bachelor’s degree in music education from UAF in 1989. He and his late wife, Cynthia, then moved to Bellevue, Washington, where he taught music in public schools and she worked for Microsoft.
In 2022, Mr. Holmberg pledged $2.8 million to create the Steve and Cynthia Holmberg Choral Director Endowment for the UAF Department of Music. The endowment is intended to help sustain the sort of summer music programs that Mr. Holmberg enjoyed in his youth.
Mr. Holmberg also returns annually to ´ºË®ÌÃÊÓƵ for a few weeks to participate in what today has become the UAF Summer Music Academy. There, he offers mentorship, leadership and encouragement to the aspiring young musicians.
Togi Letuligasenoa
For his advocacy and service on behalf of the university
Mr. Togi Letuligasenoa is a dedicated supporter of student-athletes and athletic programs at the ´ºË®ÌÃÊÓƵ, working tirelessly to connect the university with the community.
Mr. Letuligasenoa attended Lathrop High School in ´ºË®ÌÃÊÓƵ, where he was a varsity athlete, then studied at UAF’s Community and Technical College, majoring in construction management. Today, he works in ´ºË®ÌÃÊÓƵ as president of five subsidiaries of the Calista Corp., the regional Alaska Native corporation based in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta area. He oversees operations in oil and gas, marine logistics and construction.
Mr. Letuligasenoa consistently inspires those around him to build a better community. He chairs the Nanook Athletic Alliance, which supports UAF’s athletic programs and is building support for a new on-campus hockey arena. For more than two decades, he has given his time to coach softball and hockey at the high school, competitive and club levels, with some of his teams winning national championships. He also serves on the board of the Rasmuson Foundation, Alaska’s largest philanthropic grantmaking organization.