Shareholder spotlight
 Walt Monegan, Commissioner
State of Alaska
Department of Public Safety
Commisioner Monegan was raised in bush Alaska, in a town called Nyac, by his maternal grandparents. At that time, Nyac was agold mining community with a population of 54 people and a one room school house.
After attending one year of college at Alaska Methodist University, Walt enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1970.
Walt recently retired after 32 years in law enforcement with the Anchorage Police Department – the last five as the Chief of Police.
Walt is credited with enhancing police effectiveness by installing mobile computers in police vehicles; implementing advanced 911 service to Alaska’s largest municipal population; writing plans to address gang and youth violence; supporting the establishment of professional standards for village public safety officers; establishing a Citizens Police Academy and resurrecting police traffic units to address drunken driving.
In addition to police work Walt has served on Boards and Community Task Forces to include:
- Community Police Advisory Boards
- Ethnic Round Table
- Northern Endeavor Team
- Salvation Army Booth Memorial Home
- Anchorage Sexual Assault Task Force
- Mayor's Task Force on Youth and Violence
- Mayor's Advisory Committee on Municipal Employee Fund Raising Campaign
- Municipality's Diversity Council
- Alaska Special Olympics State Board
- Community Action for Drug Free Youth
- Alaska Safe Kids Project,
Walt has a Bachelor of Arts in Organizational Administration from Alaska Pacific University. He has four children and resides in Chugiak with his wife Terry.
Commissioner Monegan strongly encourages the youth of the Calista region, and any interested persons, to consider a career or a role in public safety in rural Alaska. There is a definite need for that involvement in our isolated, yet close-knit communities. Commissioner Monegan believes a community will stay strong as long as the people are committed to its safety.
Current News:
• Statewide law enforcement categories. Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan has proposed three categories of law enforcement officers covering the range of skills needed by village police officers to troopers. The idea is to give officers at lower levels incentives for more training to step up to better jobs, while creating an Alaska-grown pool of recruits for the troopers and municipal police agencies. It also could fortify rural law enforcement, which is sorely lacking in many villages.
http://www.adn.com/opinion/view/story/8704766p-8606607c.html
Rita Pitka Blumenstein
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Rita Pitka Blumentstein is a Calista Corporation Sharholderfrom Tununak, onNelsonIsland.
She attended Montessori school in Seattle, Washington, and prides herself on being a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, wife, aunt, sister, and a friend.
She has traveled the state as a health aide, birthing babies in Bethel and Nome.
She met her husband, Bernie, while they were both working in Bethel.
Today, Rita is a certified Tribal Doctor, at the Southcentral Foundation, Alaska Native Medical Center, in Anchorage.
In 1999, Rita was the first to be certified by the State of Alaska’s inaugural certified traditional healing program.
Through that certification, Rita is able to receive and treat patients referred by physicians at ANMC.
Rita uses her ‘gift’ of healing to treat Alaska Natives and American Indians, using traditional healing methods including touch and talking circle therapy in effort to better the physical, spiritual, and emotional well-being of her patients.
Rita is an accomplished, published, and honored source of traditional healing programs, which she presents throughout the U.S., and around the world. Rita presented at the 2002 Association of American Indian Physicians Traditional Medicine workshops.
Rita is a dedicated advocate of health, social development, education, native arts and heritage, women’s progress, and goodwill for everyone she meets.
Rita would like to share a simple philosophy: Do your best to learn who you are. It will help your life, and hopefully others.
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