STAFF & BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Director & Staff
Tami Truett Jerue
Executive Director
Executive Director
Paula Julian serves as Senior Policy Specialist for the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center (NIWRC), the National Indian Resource Center Addressing Domestic Violence and Safety for Indian Women. Paula assists with policy analysis and development, technical assistance and training, and development of partnerships to strengthen laws, policies and responses addressing violence against Native women. Paula has worked with Alaska Native advocates to establish the Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center and with Native Hawaiian advocates to form the Pouhana O Na Wahine (Pillars of Women) – both organizations dedicated to addressing domestic and gender-based violence in the Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian community respectively. Formerly, Paula was an Outreach Coordinator with Sacred Circle and also worked for the Avellaka Program of the La Jolla Band of Luiseno Indians to establish the Program and help develop the Tribe’s response to violence against women. Paula worked with the White Buffalo Calf Woman Society, Inc. in a technical assistance project to strengthen tribal capacity to assist sexual assault victims, including the development of a curriculum, community education and webinar materials.
From 1995-2005, Paula was a Program Manager at the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), U.S. Department of Justice. Highlights of her time at OVW include: analysis and development of policies affirming government-to-government relations and the Federal trust responsibility, for the Department and with other Federal agencies; development of the Safety for Indian Women from Sexual Assault Offenders Initiative; development and administration from 2001-2006 of the Tribal Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Coalitions Grant Program; management of the following OVW Programs: STOP Violence Against Indian Women, STOP Violence Against Women, and the State Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Coalitions; and development and implementation of technical assistance and training.
Frances Andrews joined the AKNWRC at the beginning of March 2022 as the Senior Program Specialist with a focus on Grants Administration and Management. She is Tlingit – Daaklaweidi (Eagle Killerwhale) from Angoon. Her Tlingit name is Khin-du-ane. The last five years of her career were spent with the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska where she worked as the Court Administrator and ended her time there as the Tribe’s Grant Manager. Her background is in Administration and Grant Management and she is excited to bring this experience to the TA Team at AKNWRC. She was born and raised in Southeast Alaska where she has spent most of her life. In the summer of 2021 she relocated to Anchorage where she now lives with her youngest daughter. She is also blessed to be the mother of a recent high-school graduate, Amanda and a HS Sophomore, Shaun.
Rick A. Garcia serves as the Co-Director of Law and Policy for the Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center (AKNWRC). Rick was born in West Germany and raised in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Rick moved to Alaska in 2018 and has dedicated himself to serving Alaska Tribes by providing training and technical assistance to Alaska tribal courts and justice systems. Prior to joining AKNWRC, Rick served as a Tribal Justice Facilitator with the Alaska Native Justice Center (ANJC) and as the Tribal Justice Director and Associate General Counsel for the Association of Village Council Presidents (AVCP) in Bethel, Alaska. Rick also had the honor of serving as the District Court Magistrate Judge for the Alaska Court System’s 4th Judicial District, based in Aniak and Hooper Bay.
Since 2018, most of Rick’s time in Alaska has been spent living and working off the road system in communities such as Bethel and Aniak. Through his work with AVCP, Rick had the opportunity to travel extensively to many Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Villages, connecting with Tribes and assisting with tribal court and justice capacity building and training and technical assistance.
Rick graduated cum laude from the Southern Illinois School of Law in 2009 and received his bachelor’s degree in Political Science cum laude from Florida Atlantic University in 2004. Rick has been a licensed Attorney for over a decade and is licensed in the state courts of Florida and Alaska and in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Kendra (Kahtle-et) Kloster (Tlingit/German/Irish) was born in the beautiful community of Wrangell, Alaska, and spent most of her childhood in Juneau, and is currently raising her three children on Dena’ina lands in Anchorage. Kendra is Tlingit Raven/Kiks.a'di of the Sun House and is a tribal citizen of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. Her maternal grandparents, the late Christine Jenkins and Charles Jenkins, are both from Wrangell, Alaska. Her parents are Shelley Jenkins from Wrangell, Alaska and Earl Kloster from Yakima, Washington.
After graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and a minor in Literature from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, Kendra worked at the Office of Senator Ted Stevens in Washington, D.C, and then moved to Juneau to work at the Alaska State Legislature for ten years. She obtained her Master’s Degree in Public Administration and Policy Analysis at the University of Alaska Anchorage and served as the Executive Director of Native Peoples Action for five years. Kendra has now joined the Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center as the Co-Director for Law and Policy. Kendra has been dedicated to serving her community and Alaskans, working hard to improve public safety, increasing access to voting across the state, working with her peers and community to end the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, including serving on the State MMIP Council and MMIWG2S Alaska Working Group. “My ambition and strength to make positive changes comes from the support and encouragement from my family and community. I want to ensure my children and future generations will have the ability to grow up in a safe and loving environment in Alaska. I hope everyone will be accepted for who they are and have all the experiences of living off the land, fishing with their families and being part of a supportive and safe community.”Ginger Jenkins joined the Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center in September 2022 as the Lead Administrative Assistant. She is Koyukon Athabascan from Galena, Alaska and resides in Fairbanks, Alaska. Ginger grew up between Anchorage, Galena and Fairbanks. She has three beautiful children (Kianna, Tavin, and Kaysen) whom she raises with her partner, Kevin.
Ginger looks forward to learning and growing with AKNWRC and to see first-hand the love and passion put into the AKNWRC team helping our community and across Alaska!