East Anchorage Book Club with Andrew Gray Andrew Gray

Arianna Bellizzi is the new Executive Director of Anchorage’s Federation of Community Councils. We talk about her background, how she came to this job, and the history of Anchorage’s community council system. We also discuss the current state of community councils in our city and potential ways for improving them. Find your community council by clicking here.

Soldotna City Council member Lisa Parker became at the age of 19 the youngest person in Alaska to achieve elected office when she won her election to the Anchorage Charter Commission. In 1975 that commission unified the City of Anchorage with the Borough of Anchorage into the municipality that it is today. Like our guest last week, Jane Angvik who also served on the Charter Commission, Lisa Parker was a borough representative because where she was living at the time, near Baxter and Tudor in ...

Anchorage Charter Commission member Jane Angvik ran for the Anchorage Charter Commission not too long after she had moved to Anchorage in 1973. What she had learned during her time working for the Greater Anchorage Borough Planning Department was that the City of Anchorage and the Borough of Anchorage hated each other – they couldn’t stop suing each other, and the State of Alaska had grown weary of the drama. The ridiculous conflict even resulted in the loss of life. This is Jane Angvik’s rec...

Jane Angvik was an Anchorage Charter Commission member who drafted the founding document that unified the city and borough of Anchorage in 1975. On July 1, 2024, she administered the oath of office at the inauguration of Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance. Jane has spent her life in service to Alaska whether at her first job for the Anchorage borough as a planner upon her arrival in 1973, working for the Alaska Federation of Natives, serving on the Anchorage Assembly, or training the next gener...

Community activist Dr. Cal Williams was born on November 30, 1941, in Monroe, Louisiana. A college graduate, Williams served in the United States Air Force during the early 1960s and participated in the Civil Rights Movement through his affiliation with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). In 1965, following the advice of Charles and John LeViege, two high school friends who were enrolled at Alaska Methodist University (now Alaska Pacific University), Williams came to Anchorage seeking a c...

Tafilisaunoa Toleafoa was born and raised in the islands of Samoa in the the South Pacific. She moved to Anchorage 20 years ago to join the rest of her family who were already here. Ms. Toleafoa serves as Executive Director at the Pacific Community of Alaska. She serves as co-chair for the board of directors for the National Association of Pasifika Organizations (NAOPO) and member of the board of directors for the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA); she ...