UAA’s College of Business and Public Policy is developing a Master of Public Policy/Master of Public Administration (MPP/MPA) program that will provide an important avenue for faculty at the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) to help train a new generation of policy makers, analysts, and administrators.
News at ISER
Welcome to the ISER News and Announcements page, your hub for timely updates, industry insights, and the latest organizational highlights. Here, you can stay informed about upcoming events, important deadlines, and exciting achievements, all aimed at keeping the ISER community connected and engaged.
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Lunchtime Talk: Uncertainty in impact assessment -- research perspectives from Denmark and Greenland
When: Tuesday, November 13, 12-1
Where: ISER Conference Room, Third Floor, 1901 Bragaw Street, Suite 301
Uncertainty is an unavoidable and challenging part of assessing impacts of future development activities. It is also vital to providing transparency in the decision-making process. Dr. Sanne Vammen Larsen, a visiting Fulbright scholar at ISER, will introduce the topic and draw on research results from Denmark and Greenland to shed light on the role of uncertainty in impact assessment, its implementation in practice and the implications for various stakeholders.
Dr. Larsen, a member of the Fulbright Arctic Initiative, is an Associate Professor at the Danish Centre for Environmental Assessment at Aalborg University in Denmark. Her research is focused on environmental assessment and planning mainly in Denmark and Greenland. She is spending six weeks with ISER conducting research for an Alaska case study on how uncertainty is dealt with, including the integration of local, indigenous knowledge. Part of her her Fulbright Arctic Initiative cohort is looking at the integration of local knowledge in decision-making surrounding sustainable economies.
Note: This talk will not be live streamed or recorded.
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ISER’s Dayna DeFeo, director of the Center for Alaska Education Policy Research (CAEPR), and Research Associates Jessica Passini and Trang Tran provided current research to educators, administrators and policymakers on student transitions from high school to post-secondary education, including college and technical schools.
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ISER's Mouhcine Guettabi told attendees at the Alaska State Chamber of Commerce's Fall Forum in Fairbanks, "The future of Alaska economic development will rest on the success of the traditional basic sectors and the pursuit of new opportunities.
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How did we get here? The Alaska economy is heavily dependent on the oil sector both in terms of private sector jobs and government funding. Since the rapid decline in oil prices, it has experienced a prolonged recession with declines in employment across most sectors. Before the end of 2014, oil prices were elevated for a long period of time when the price exceeded 100 dollars for multiple months. However, starting June 2014, oil prices experienced a deep drop averaging only $54.26 in the 4 years since. This is much lower than the $84.47 they averaged between 2006 and July 2014. While oil prices started declining in June of 2014, the first month of negative employment growth did not occur until October 2015. The state has essentially lost jobs in every month since that initial decline. This has also resulted in a precipitous drop in government revenues, which has forced the state to use savings to fill the fiscal gap. To gain perspective on the depth and severity of the Alaska experience, we attempt to compare the recessions across states and understand the features of the states which fared best and worst.
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ISER’s Jennifer Schmidt, Assistant Professor of Natural Resources Management, is lead for the Urban Forest and Watershed sector of the Anchorage Climate Action Plan.Read More
ISER researcher Dr. Tobias Schwoerer and UAA Engineering Computer Science Professor Dr. Frank Witmer are working with UAA Honors student Devin Boyle to get a better understanding of how Elodea, an invasive freshwater plant in Alaska, is being spread across Alaska by float planes. Funded with an Honors College grant and support from Rust’s Flying Service, the project involves investigating the feasibility of using images captured by cameras installed on float planes as part of a “big data” citizen science project.
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ISER researcher Dr. Tobias Schwoerer and UAA Engineering Computer Science Professor Dr. Frank Witmer are working with UAA Honors student Devin Boyle to get a better understanding of how Elodea, an invasive freshwater plant in Alaska, is being spread across Alaska by float planes. Funded with an Honors College grant and support from Rust’s Flying Service, the project involves investigating the feasibility of using images captured by cameras installed on float planes as part of a “big data” citizen science project.
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The state is in the midst of its longest recession. A new analysis by Mouhcine Guettabi, an associate professor of economics at ISER, analyzes how the recent decline in oil prices has affected the overall Alaska economy and its individual sectors, compares the Alaska recession to that of other energy-dependent states, and estimates the long run relationship between oil prices and employment growth.
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The Center for Alaska Education Policy Research (CAEPR) is collaborating with the Department of Biological Sciences in a new National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded project to redesign UAA’s general introductory biology course for non-majors. The goal is to increase student learning and engagement, and to encourage more UAA students to pursue STEM majors and careers.