April 17, 2023, by admin

The Sitka Sound Science Center is honored to have Anne Zink as the keynote speaker for the “Beyond Covid Pandemic Preparedness in the Circumpolar North” conference. The keynote is open to the public and will take place on Thursday, April 27^th at 4:30pm at Sheet’ka Ḵwaán Naa Kahidi Community House. Doors open at 4:00pm.

Dr. Anne Zink grew up in Colorado and attended college in Philadelphia and medical school at Stanford. As a mountaineering guide before college, she fell in love with Alaska, and returned to the state after completing her residency in emergency medicine at University at Utah. Not only does she love the people and the place, but also the practice of medicine in Alaska, where communities can engage providers, patients, and policies to make people healthier.

While practicing as an emergency medicine physician, she soon learned that the emergency department was where all good public health policy comes to fail. She quickly realized that if she was going to care for her patients, she needed to care about health policy as well. She focused her work on the opioid epidemic, complex patient care, workplace violence, and health care reform.

Dr. Zink had the honor of becoming the State of Alaska’s Chief Medical Officer in July 2019.  She and her team led Alaska through the COVID-19 pandemic. She also serves as president of ASTHO, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officers. She has a special interest in using informatics and information to bring together public health and health care systems to improve the health of the people.

The Sitka Sound Science Center looks forward to hosting this conference, and we hope you will join us for the special keynote speaker.