Ketchikan Campus

Education:

M.P.A., University of Alaska Southeast Juneau
B.L.A., University of Alaska Southeast Juneau
A.A.S., Motion Picture and Television Production, Scottsdale Community College
Graduate, Ketchikan High School

Courses Taught:

HUM 101 - College Success Skills

Biography:

Alaska: I’ve lived in Ketchikan for most of my life. We moved here when I was about seven, from Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. Zoiks how time flies! I absolutely love Alaska! I’ve been all over the state including: Palmer, Kodiak, Anchorage, Fairbanks, Metlakatla, Prince of Wales Island, and many points in-between.

I still want to see more! Yes the weather is adverse, the summers sometimes lack sunshine, but hey, where else can you experience all four seasons in five minutes, catch a 250 lb halibut, see 100 Bald Eagles in one setting, watch a pod of Killer whales swim through the channel, meet people from all over the world, and call it home?

My Job: I am a Student Services Coordinator on the Ketchikan Campus. I love working with people, helping them find their way through college, and especially hearing their stories. Students often come into my office and tell me how well, or not, they are doing at any given time in their academic career. It is in these conversations that students really get a chance to talk to someone about their dreams and their ambitions, their trials, defeats, and successes! I love to see the look on student’s faces when I tell them their goals and dreams are possible and that I can help them find the way to attain them. More than anything else, I love to see students succeed at their goals; to see them experience the joy of coming from a place of indecision and trepidation to a place of certainty and confidence.

My Life:  I have a strong passion for film making and for writing.  I have two favorite thoughts permanently affixed in my private and public life:

    “I shall not pass this way again, any good thing I can do or any kindness I can show let me do it now, for I shall not pass this way again” – Atienne De Grollet
    “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, whose thoughts are fixed on you!” Isaiah 26:3 NLT

Education:

B.B.A, University of Alaska Fairbanks

Biography:

I've loved living in Alaska since I first arrived here at the tender age of 2.  I've been blessed to see much of the state having lived in Chugiak, Talkeetna, Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Ketchikan.  The beauty and serenity of this special place we live (even with the large amounts of rain) is inspiring.  After graduating from a little Alaskan high school (we had a graduating class of 18 students) I attended the University of Alaska Fairbanks, graduating with a BA in Business Administration in 1990.  I 've had the pleasure of working with college students for over eighteen years and I am inspired by the perseverance of our students as well as the power of education to help students change their lives for the better.

Other:

Specialities: Transfer students, nursing, social work, business students

Education:

Ph.D., MA, Tulane University
B.S., Oregon State University

William Urquhart’s recent doctoral dissertation on school violence and bullying includes ethnographic and statistical studies at a remote Western Alaska village and at an inner-city high school in pre-Katrina New Orleans.  This work emphasizes the importance of social account conversations in defining peer group norms for retaliation in disadvantaged areas, and will soon be published in book form as a monograph.  His other research interests include Alaskan social problems such as alcoholism and domestic violence, and organizational behavior perspectives on workplace violence.  Currently, he is investigating the effect of climatic temperature variation on seasonal domestic violence rate cycles in northern states.  He enjoys teaching distance education classes, and some of his course offerings include Theory and Research in Criminology, Social Psychology, and Alaska Social Problems; Deviant Behavior, Organizational Behavior, and Environmental Sociology.

Biography:

Bill was born and raised in Ketchikan, following four generations of Alaska commercial fishermen, prospectors, and pioneer women.  His interest in sociology was piqued through his early experiences commercial fishing with his family, where he observed social change affecting the organizational structure of the industry.  Since returning to Alaska from New Orleans in 2002 for dissertation research, Bill has lived in several areas of the state, including time working as an educator and wrestling coach in Western Alaska and in Fairbanks. 

In addition to serving as an instructor at UAS, Bill is an independent consultant to several Alaska school districts, working with student information systems and federal and state data reporting.  Bill also plays the Scottish Great Highland Bagpipes; he is the Lead Bagpiper with Ketchikan’s Misty Thistle Pipes & Drums, and also performs at select solo engagements.  Bill enjoys spending his spare time with his wife Frankie, a science teacher in Ketchikan, and their small children, Liam, Neila, and Torran.

Other:

Advising contact for all distance-based students in the Bachelor of Liberal Arts degree.