Alaska Native Heritage Center Promotes New CEO
Photo Credit: Alaska Native Heritage Center
For its next President and CEO, the Alaska Native Heritage Center (ANHC) promoted Kelsey Ciugun Wallace, previously vice president of strategic advancement and communications. She succeeds Emily Edenshaw, who left the Anchorage institution to become CEO and Tribal Administrator of Ketchikan Indian Community.
Wallace has worked her way up from an intern with ANHC ten years ago. She returned to the center in 2022 and was promoted to lead the communications department last year. She is credited with significantly expanding ANHC’s reach and impact by growing culturally relevant programs and social enterprise initiatives and by cultivating philanthropic partnerships and events. Wallace helped secure more than $13 million in transformational funding from federal, state, tribal and philanthropic partners, and by fortifying systems for donor engagement. Wallace co-led ANHC’s multi-year responsibility plan, helped shape organizational strategy, co-directed a multimillion-dollar facility renovation, and directed its largest capital and programmatic campaigns.
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May 2026
This appointment concludes a national search for a new president and CEO. ANHC Board Chair Tiffany Tutiakoff says, “Kelsey leads with heart, humility, and an unwavering belief in the brilliance of our Alaska Native Peoples. Under her guidance, the Heritage Center will continue to grow as a global leader in cultural tourism and Indigenous innovation, expanding access to cultural education and creating spaces where community remains at the center.”
Originally from Mamterilleq (Bethel), Wallace is Yup’ik and Irish and holds a bachelor’s degree in rural development from UAF with a concentration in indigenous organizational management and a minor in the Central Yup’ik language (known indigenously as Yugtun).
Wallace says, “Quyaunga (I am thankful). I am deeply honored to serve as President and CEO of the Alaska Native Heritage Center—a place that has shaped who I am both personally and professionally. My journey from intern to this role reflects the power of community and the importance of investing in our people. I look forward to building upon the Heritage Center’s strong foundation to ensure it remains an accessible and living space that celebrates the beauty, strength, and diversity of Alaska Native peoples, cultures, and ways of life.”
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