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Mission
The Wrangell Mountains Center is a private nonprofit institute which fosters understanding, appreciation, and stewardship of wildlands and mountain culture in Alaska through scientific and artistic inquiry in Alaska's Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve.

Our Vision
The Wrangell Mountains Center strives to facilitate understanding, appreciation, and stewardship of the lands and communities of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. We create opportunities for personal transformation through direct experience with this extraordinary place. Our programs provide students, local citizens, scholars, and travelers with an increased understanding of complex natural processes, a changed view of the human place in the natural environment, and new skills for taking effective action on their own local issues. In the process of helping people come to know the Wrangell Mountains, we are building a strong local, national, and international constituency for the protection of wildlands and the enhancement of mountain cultures in Alaska and beyond.

Guiding Principles
The board and staff of the Wrangell Mountains Center evaluate past, present, and future institute activities in light of the following principles:

History & Need
The founding members of the Wrangell Mountains Center began living and teaching in the Wrangells over thirty years ago. Since that time, a once little-known landscape of towering mountains and quiet communities has been discovered by an expanding public.

Today, the WMC is the only private education and research-oriented institution in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve. Our facility and history predates the designation of the Park, enabling the Wrangell Mountains Center a unique ability to forge links among local communities, park lands, and the general public within the context of scientific and artistic inquiry.

With gateway communities like McCarthy, Kennecott, and Nabesna comprising the primary "Park Experience" for many visitors, our role is critical. The Wrangell Mountains Center provides interpretation of the Wrangells for visitors and locals, supplementing the efforts of the NPS, while additionally providing a forum for research and discussion of the region's natural history, aesthetic values, conservation oppurtunities, community development, and cultural uniqueness and vibrancy.

As public recognition and visitation to the region grows, we continue to build our institutional capacity while offering time-tested and newly-hewn programs that honor our place within one of the planet's most magnificent landscapes.

Location
Cultural Locale
Located within walking distance of the Kennicott Glacier, the Wrangell Mountains Center's activities are based in the small community of McCarthy, on private land, within the boundaries of the nation's largest National Park. Known as North America's Mountain Kingdom, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve encompasses 13.2 million acres including nine of the sixteen tallest peaks, an active volcano, and many of the continents largest glaciers and rivers. Together with adjacent parks in Canada and Alaska, Wrangell-St. Elias represents one of the world's largest contiguous tracts of protected wildlands -- more than 25 million acres -- and is currently recognized as a United Nations World Heritage Area. As tourism to the region increases, McCarthy and the adjacent Kennecott National Historic Landmark are emerging as visitor destinations of international significance, while continuing to serve as a precious home to local people and a favorite destinations for Alaska residents.

Natural Locale
The environs surrounding McCarthy provide an outstanding natural laboratory for student and seasoned researchers alike. In particular, the local landscape invites inquiry into primary successional processes, alpine and forest ecology, spruce bark beetle dynamics, glacial outburst floods, bedrock geology, glaciology, and any number of geologic or geomorphologic processes. Including ecosystems that stretch from cirque to sea, the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve is also home to healthy herds of Dall sheep, mountain goat, moose, grizzly bear, black bear, wolverine, caribou, wolf -- a complete array of resident sub-arctic mammals as well as migrating birds and salmon.


Facilities Hardware Store door
The Wrangell Mountains Center is headquartered in the "Old Hardware Store," a historic building which originally served as a general store for the boomtown of McCarthy during the copper mining period of the early-20th century. Built in 1908 and abandoned in 1938, the structure was placed on the National Register of Historic Places after former board member Sally Gibert initiated ongoing stabilization and restoration efforts in 1976. What was once a store, family living quarters, and rooming house is now an active solar-powered educational center, with a library, seminar room, program office, equipment storage for rafting and mountaineering expeditions, workshop, office/studio space for visiting scholars and artists, a cooperatively-run kitchen, flower, vegetable gardens, and a small green house. By joining a learning community at the Hardware Store, participants from all backgrounds have the opportunity to experience a largely sustainable living system.

Working cooperatively with the National Park Service, Prince William Sound Community College, and locally owned businesses, the Wrangell Mountains Center enjoys access to various other facilities, including a rooming house, recreation hall, theater, and full-service lodge equipped for conventions. We also have the capacity to establish temporary backcountry camps with a complete kitchen, enclosed meeting space, and a wood heat source. River-based learning and research can be contracted in partnership with reputable local guiding services.

Governance
The Center is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors. Our board members' intimate knowledge of Alaska and the Wrangell Mountains underlies the array of skills and talents they bring to a dynamic and creative governance of the WMC.
  • Michael Loso, PhD, President of the Board, is an Assistant Professor of Geology and Earth Sciences at Alaska Pacific University. He holds a PhD from the University of California Santa Cruz, MS from the University of Vermont's Field Naturalist program, and plays banjo in the local McCarthy bluegrass ensemble. Nearly through with the construction of his home in Kennicott, this is Mike's 19th year in the Wrangells.
  • Howard Mozen, Vice President, is a special education teacher, outdoor educator, mountain guide, and former owner of the commercial rafting company Copper Oar. Educated at the University of California Santa Cruz, Howard taught programs for the Wrangell Mountains Center for nine years. He owns a homebuilt yurt and beautiful log cabin just meters from the Kennicott Glacier.
  • Lila Vogt, Treasurer, is a writer, historian and Anchorage-based accountant with a long history in the Copper River Basin. Born in Alaska and a lifelong bibliophile, Lila also serves on the boards of the Alaska Center for Book and the Alaska Poetry League.
  • Thea Agnew, Secretary, is a born and raised Alaskan. Thea has been a part of the McCarthy community since the early 1990s, where she constructed her own home and served three terms as president of the local area council. Thea holds a Masters Degree in History and is the founding partner of Anchorage-based Agnew::Beck, a consulting firm which provides community planning and development services across Alaska.
  • Guy Adema, MS, is a resource manager with the National Park Service. His background is in field geophysics applied to aquifers, glaciers, geohazards - but more recently is involved with resource monitoring, restoration, and planning. In addition to working with the Wrangell Mountains Center, he is on the board of the Juneau Icefield Research Program, an expeditionary field science training program. Guy lives adjacent to Denali Park.
  • Lilly Goodman-Allwright first came to McCarthy in 1991 when she worked as a local mountain guide, and made the Wrangells her year-round home. She was a Wildlands Studies faculty member in 2002, and the program director for the educator workshop for 2005 through 2007. She has over 17 years experience in experiential, outdoor science education and outreach.
  • Barry Hecht, PhD, first traveled to the McCarthy area in 1972 to do research for a document that introduced the Wrangells to Congress, and led to the establishment of the Park and Preserve. With Ben Shaine, Barry started the Wrangell Mountains Center's student program in 1982, and taught portions of the program for much of the next 10 years. Barry is a principal with the consulting company Balance Hydrologics.
  • Megan Richotte, former Kennecott District Interpreter for Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, has stepped down from the board. She is now the Exhibit Specialist at Lake Clark National Park. She was a key player in the partnership between the WMC and the National Park Service and a generous and wise member of our organization, and she is missed.
  • Danny Rosenkrans works as a land manager for Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, where he has served a variety of roles. A geologist by training, Danny is interested in dialogue and advancing the integration of nontraditional park uses with sustainable management of Park lands and resources. He also hopes to advance the role of science in decision making and communication with Park users. He lives in Kenny Lake, Alaska with his family.
  • Maria Shell, MFA, has been a commited participant in the Wrangell Mountains Writers workshop for nine years. She is a former adjunct faculty member at Prince William Sound Community College and an award-winning art quilter whose work has been exhibited in juried national and international shows.
Staff
  • Jeremy Pataky, MFA, Executive Director, has worked as a wilderness guide in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve and as a university instructor, adjunct professor, and freelance writer. He studied creative writing at the University of Montana and earned a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from The Foraker Group and University of Alaska Fairbanks.
  • Lilly Goodman-Allwright, MS, Program Staff, directs and facilitates the Alaska Natural History Interpretation and Environmental Education Workshop. She has been a mountaineering instructor, backpacking guide, and NPS interpreter in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. Lilly is also on the WMC Board of Directors and serves as the WMC liaison for the Interpretive Naturalist Certification Program of Alaska (INCPA).
  • Tim Bartholomous, MS, PhD student in geophysics, Alaska Wildlands Studies Instructor, is a geologist and glaciologist whose research at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research has focused on the hydrology of the Kennicott Glacier in the Wrangell Mountains. Tim is pursuing a PhD at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
  • Tyler Boyes, Operations Intern, grew up in a rural town north of San Francisco near a national park. He first came to  the Wrangell Mountains Center as an Alaska Wildlands Studies student; he earned an Earth Science degree at UC Santa Cruz, where he first learned about the WMC. He mountain bikes, surfs, practices yoga, backpacks and climbs. "Participating in the Wildlands Studies program last summer was a life-changing experience," he says, "and I am so glad to be coming back."
  • Nancy Cook, MFA, Wrangell Mountains Writing Workshop Director, is a resident of McCarthy's south-side. She has directed and facilitated the Wrangell Mountains Writing Workshop since 1997. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and teaches writing in Astoria, Oregon. Her recent essays appear in the River Teeth Journal of Nonfiction Narrative, the Mountain Gazette, and the Seal Press anthology Going Alone.
  • Joe Donohue, Facilities Manager, studied Biology and English at Kenyon College and has experience with ecological restoration, organic farming, and construction. He has a strong interest in sustainability, conservation, science and arts education, and music. Joe worked in the Wrangells in 2009 as a member of the Exotic Plants Management Team for the Park Service and is excited to expand and share his interests at the Center this summer.
  • Megan Gahl, PhD, Alaska Wildlands Studies Program Director, is an ecologist whose field work focuses on northern environments, including aquatic ecosystems and ecosystem response to changing conditions. She has fifteen years experience in field research, community service and backcountry leadership in environments ranging from Central and South America to Africa and the North American boreal and alpine.
  • Tamara Harper, Kennecott Recreation Hall Coordinator, has lived in McCarthy for seven years, during which time she has enjoyed many fun and festive events in the Rec Hall. She has worked both for the NPS, studying sockeye salmon and controlling invasive weeds, and for various local businesses. She loves gardening, birding, cooking, hiking and restoring the old trapper cabins she and her husband own in McCarthy.  
  • Melissa Keevil, Alaska Wildlands Studies Intern, is working toward an M.S. in Environmental Studies at Antioch University New England with a focus in science education. She is an ardent lover of exploring science outside and is excited for her first year with the Wrangell Mountains Center.

  • Born in Anchorage, Brita Mjos grew up in the Chugach Mountains and on the rivers and bays of the Kenai Peninsula. She has fished commercially and worked as a stream steward. During 2009, she worked for NOAA on Kodiak Island to determine the life history of several commercially-targeted rockfish species. Alaska’s wilds inspired her to study environmental science and promote conservation of Alaska’s expanses; she will graduate this spring with a BS in Environmental Science from Western Washington University. She plans to explore how organizations collaborate with communities facing environmental challenges to find long-term, self-sustaining solutions. Brita also hopes to explore environmental education programs as an effective way to encourage greater support for protection of wild places. She looks forward to a summer in the mountains with the McCarthy and WMC community.

  • Leif Mjos, Alaska Wildlands Studies Instructor, has a strong sense of place fostered in Alaska over his entire life. He came to the Center in 2006 as an operations intern at the Old Hardware Store, and then in 2008 as the field assistant for the Wildlands Studies program. After graduating from Prescott College in 2005, he pursued experiential education in natural history, ecology, conservation, and adventure education. He is inspired by the profound learning and growth that takes place during a summer in the Wrangells.
  • David Mitchell, MS, Alaska Wildlands Studies Instructor, teaches ecology and field techniques for the Alaska Wildlands Studies Program. He studied applied ecology at Yale University and serves as the Conservation Director for the Great Land Trust in southcentral Alaska.
  • Shawn Olson, Alaska Wildlands Studies Instructor, is an alumna of WMC's summer college program. She holds a bachelor's degree in environmental studies from The Evergreen State College, as well as a certificate in editing from the University of Washington. She is the co-author of Community and Copper in a Wild Land (published by WMC), as well as Defending Wild Washington (Mountaineers Books, 2005). Though her home range is the North Cascades of Washington State, she is perpetually drawn back to Alaska for its opportunities to experience true wildness.
  • Vicki Penwell, Educational Outreach Coordinator, is a natural and cultural history interpretation and education consultant and freelance writer. She and her husband, Lee, have lived on Nabesna Road in northern Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve for 16 years; Lee is celebrating 51 years in Alaska this year, most of that time spent in the Nabesna area. Vicki is passionate about finding ways to help people connect to the natural world around them and to celebrating the role of place in promoting conservation and stewardship.
  • Allison Sayer, MS, Kitchen Manager, has conducted biological research throughout the state on various topics including the interrelationships between salmon and spruce trees, the paths and relationships between migratory waterfowl, and the health of commercial fish populations. She has worked as a wilderness guide in Prince William Sound and other parts of the U.S., travelled throughout the Alaska backcountry, and done some farming here and there. She often ends up cooking for people in all sorts of circumstances and looks forward to devoting herself wholeheartedly to providing home, hearth, and support for all the souls traveling through the Center. She also looks forward to preserving this summer's bounty for next spring and otherwise providing a kitchen environment that reflects the larger values and mission of the WMC.
  • Benjamin Shaine, PhD, Wildlands Studies Program Staff, is the author of numerous policy papers as well as a novel, Alaska Dragon, set in the McCarthy area. Ben has led student groups through the Wrangells for over twenty years. He handled Wrangells issues for the environmental lobby during the congressional debate on the Alaska Lands Act, co-founded the Wrangell Mountains Center, and teaches regularly in the Center's undergraduate programs. Ben holds a PhD in Environmental Studies from the Union Graduate School. He co-authored Community & Copper in a Wild Land, available as a downloadable pdf or in hardcopy at the Center.
  • Please consult individual program descriptions for a complete lists of guest lecturers, visiting writers and other revolving staff members.

 

 

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