Michael "Mike" Davis

Michael E. (Mike) Davis was raised in California, first coming to Alaska as a volunteer with the VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) program the late 1960s, when he lived in New Stuyahok in Bristol Bay. Since that time, he has worked in government and university settings to advance the interests of rural Alaskans. He currently lives in Dillingham, Alaska, where he has fished commercially since 1978. From 1982 to 1990, Mike was a member of the Alaska State Legislature in the House of Representatives, representing Fairbanks. His service to the State of Alaska continued in his work at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), where he worked from 1996 to 2014 as faculty in the Department of Alaska Native Studies and Rural Development, based at the Bristol Bay Campus in Dillingham. During his time at UAF, Mike served for many years on the Faculty Senate, numerous university committees, and the Representative Assembly of United Academics, a faculty union affiliated with the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). In 1992, Mike was an Exchange Faculty with Magadan Pedagogical Institute, Russia.  He retired from UAF as an Associate Professor in 2014. Throughout his time at UAF, Mike coordinated student seminars on government and leadership in Juneau, Barrow, Bethel, Dillingham, and Unalaska, teaching on topics including the Alaska state legislative process, traditional knowledge, and environmental change and development in the Arctic. He has been known for using his creativity and knowledge, dedication to teaching and advising students in rural Alaska, and use of the latest interactive teaching methods to reach graduate and undergraduate students and expand knowledge of government and politics among students and the broader community.