Two Promoted to Alaska Native Heritage Center Leadership Team
Alaska Native Heritage Center
A pair of managers at Alaska Native Heritage Center (ANHC) in Anchorage are promoted to senior leadership positions.
Alaska Native Heritage Center
Rinah Fifield becomes Director of Operations, providing operational leadership and overseeing human resources, supporting efforts related to cultural tourism, and helping to manage programs such as Cultural Awareness Workshops, Culture Boxes, and the overall ANHC experience for Alaska Native peoples and visitors from across the globe.
Fifield first joined ANHC as an events manager to oversee facilities, develop tourism relationships, and coordinate social enterprise operations and revenue streams within ANHC. Born and raised in Anchorage, Fifield previously served as corporate services manager for Cook Inlet Region, Inc., with experience in event planning, sales and marketing, talent management, budgeting, and logistics.
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May 2024
“I am thrilled to further my career with ANHC as its Director of Operations,” Fifield says. “From serving as a gathering place for the Alaska Native community to preserving culture, heritage, and traditions, our organization plays a vital role in our community. I look forward to building and strengthening partnerships and enhancing our role as a long-standing educational and cultural institution.”
Alaska Native Heritage Center
Also joining the ANHC senior leadership team is Caroline Ulapiŋan Wiseman as Director of Cultural Programming. She notes that the center’s cultural programs played a tremendous role in her life: she began her involvement at ANHC in 2009 as a student in the Afterschool High School Program.
“This place helped mold me,” Wiseman says. “I learned what it means to be an Alaska Native here. In many ways, ANHC prepared me for my life. I am excited for my new role, to continue to meet our mission, and strive to empower our community through our cultural ways of life.”
Wiseman was born and raised in Anchorage and comes from Iñupiaq, Hawaiian, and European heritage. In 2012, she was adopted into the Tsimshian Ganhada Clan. She is a member of the Lepquinm Gumilgit Gagoadim Tsimshian Dancers and Imamsuat Sugpiaq Dance Group.
Wiseman received her undergraduate degree in elementary education at Haskell Indian Nations University and taught at Nome Elementary School and Alaska Native Cultural Charter School (ANCCS). She serves as a community member for the ANCCS academic policy committee. Wiseman returned to ANHC in December 2022 as a program manager for the Tin Hoozoonh Apprenticeship.
“Caroline is the epitome of ANHC’s mission, having first joined ANHC as a student in one of our high school programs to now leading cultural and educational programming,” says ANHC President and CEO Emily Edenshaw. “Caroline brings a wealth of knowledge, community-forward thinking, and an energized perspective that will strengthen ANHC’s cultural programming to meet the needs of our youth, Elders, and all community members in between.”
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