I want to thank you all for allowing me to serve as your president for 2017-2018. I honestly feel totally unqualified for the position, but I care about WDALA and about each of you, and I want to see WDALA not only continue, but flourish. And WDALA cannot continue or flourish unless members are willing to serve.
For those of you new to WDALA or who don’t know my background, I will give a little introduction. I am a life-long Air Force “brat.” Although I was born in Topeka, Kansas, my dad spent most of his Air Force career in Germany and Alaska, and my family moved back and forth a few times. I feel very lucky to have seen parts of the world many never get to see. My husband was also an Air Force brat, and then he had his own Air Force career, and we moved back and forth between Alaska and other places too. He got stationed at Minot Air Force Base in 2002, and for better or worse, we have been here ever since.
My dad spent the parts of his career that I can remember in public affairs and then law enforcement. My mom was a teacher, and her mother was also a teacher. When I started college at the University of Alaska Anchorage in 1990, I thought I wanted to be a teacher too and was initially on the education track. But it soon became apparent I was only in it for the summers, and although I love children, I didn’t really want to spend all of my days with other people’s children. Since I didn’t know what I wanted to do, I took a break from college. I worked in the advertising departments of three different daily newspapers over a period of nine years. During those years, newspapers were not yet dying out, and it was fun knowing just about everything going on in a community. At one point during those nine years I took steps to return to college, but then learned I was pregnant with our son Christopher, and did not end up going back to school at that time.
In 1999, we moved from Florida back to Alaska, and by then I was very determined to find a “real career,” and went back to school full time. This time I was a very dedicated and diligent student, and I absolutely loved college. However, I still didn’t know what I really wanted to do! Between the Air Force and money my mother had put away for me, I had two years of college paid for, so I decided to enroll in an associate’s degree program. I puzzled and puzzled over which program to work on, but could not make a decision. Finally, I had an appointment in my academic advisor’s office and it was time to make a selection. The form I was filling out had a list of about 50 different associate degree programs. I am a strong believer in the power of prayer, so I closed my eyes, said a prayer, and put my finger down on the paper. My finger was mostly on “paralegal.” (A part of my fingers was also on “plumbing,” but there’s no way God would send me there, right?) I always liked office work, so I decided to try it. I really liked my first classes, and the more I learned, the more the paralegal profession seemed like a good fit. My professors were great, and I stuck with it all the way through.
One of the things that really hit home with me was the university paralegal department’s strong support of paralegal associations. The local paralegal association in Anchorage, Alaska is a part of the National Federation of Paralegals, and the association did a presentation to my intro class and invited us to attend meetings, which I did. Later, I did my paralegal internship at the Alaska Pro Bono Program, and the director there was also a strong supporter of the paralegal association. The paralegal association ended up doing a story about me and the other intern, which appeared in The Paralegal Reporter (NFPA’s publication).
My first real job as a paralegal was working for an attorney who practiced mostly in family law
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE