Representative Kreiss-Tomkins to Present at Chamber Luncheon

Weekly luncheons are held every Wednesday at noon. Enjoy great food, dynamic speakers, and exciting networking opportunities. Chamber luncheons are open to the public. Chamber members receive special member-only pricing.

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Speaker
Representative Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins

Presentation
Legislative Update

Biography
Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins represents Sitka and rural Southeast Alaska in the Alaska House of Representatives.

Jonathan was born and raised in Sitka and graduated from Sitka High School. After seven semesters at Yale College, he left school one credit away from early graduation (much to his mother's chagrin) in order to run for the Alaska Legislature. Jonathan was elected in November 2012 and serves on the Transportation, State Affairs, and Fisheries Committees.

Jonathan is deeply invested in Sitka and Southeast. While in college, he started two programs in Sitka. The first, Bulldogs on Baranof, brings college students from the Lower 48 to Sitka to work for local nonprofits and organizations. So far, over 50 students, mostly from Yale, have spent a summer in Sitka. Jonathan is also a founder of the Sitka Fellows Program, a multidisciplinary residency on the Sheldon Jackson Campus. The Sitka Fellows Program brings together top American talent under the age of 30 across all fields and disciplines to spend seven weeks in Sitka working on projects that will change the world, in ways big, small, or subtle.

Jonathan is a musician and has performed as symphonic soloist on his cello and also toured as a chamber musician on both cello and double bass. Jonathan grew in scouting and achieved the rank of Eagle Scout when he was in high school. His interest in the outdoors continues. A mountaineer, he summited El Muertito, a remote volcano on the Argentine-Chilean border, the highest unclimbed mountain in the Western Hemisphere, in 2011. He also coordinated an expedition that conclusively measured two previously unmeasured peaks on the Argentina-Chile border. And in college he spearheaded a project to quantify glacial retreat on Baranof Island as a means to gauge the impact of climate change on climatically temperate glaciers.

Prior to the legislature, Jonathan worked as a substitute teacher, a deckhand on a troller, and did public policy work, and served as interim manager of Sitka's recycling program.