April 2009 President’s Corner
Greetings and welcome to our Women Police of Alaska webpage. It is hard to believe that not only is 2008 behind us, we are already four months into 2009!
First, I want to take this opportunity to recognize the achievements of some of our WPA members in 2008 that have been made known to me:
Long time WPA member Kelly Alzaharna was promoted to Chief of Police of the North Slope Borough PD headquartered in Barrow, Alaska;
WPA Secretary Sherrie Daigle accepted a position as Chief Investigator for the State of Alaska Workers’ Compensation Fraud Investigation Section. She is in charge of the workers’ compensation fraud investigators in their offices in Anchorage, Juneau and Fairbanks;
Kim Krausher found her way back to the Mainland from St. Thomas, USVI in 2008 after being promoted to Group Supervisor of the DEA Seattle Division Intelligence Group (which includes Alaska). She oversees eight analysts whose work on all aspects of drug cases including pharmaceuticals and precursor chemicals;
Michelle Bucher, Anchorage Police Department, was promoted from sergeant/supervisor of the Financial Crimes Unit to Lieutenant of the Detective Team 2. She is the commander of the Special Victims Unit, Crimes Against Children Unit, Vice Units, and Cyber Crimes Unit;
Anchorage Police Department Detective Jackie Conn was selected as the APD 2008 Detective of the Year by the APD Employee Recognition Board for her work in the Theft Unit, the organization of a successful and highly popular monthly Southcentral Retailer’s meeting, and her work as the investigator of animal abuse cases for the Municipality of Anchorage;
Retired Alaska State Trooper and WPA Treasurer Rae Arno published her book entitled “ Anchorage Place Names”;
WPA Board Member Maxine Andrews was selected as the 2008 Member of the Year for the Anchorage Chapter of the Alaska Peace Officers Association for her work in the association as chapter treasurer;
Life Member Shirley Gifford was appointed out of retirement (we knew it wouldn’t last forever) in December 2008 to be Director of the State of Alaska Alcohol, Beverage Control Board by Governor Sarah Palin.
Congratulations to all!
It is election time again (every two years) and all the officers and Board of Directors are up for election: President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer and four (4) board members. Ballots will be sent out during the first week of May – a little later than usual this year as our annual membership meeting is being held later in the year at the 2009 APOA Crime Conference in Kenai, Alaska on June 1, 2009. See the link to “Meetings and Events” for continuing updates on this and other meetings and events of interest to our members.
The International Association of Women Police international training conference will be held in our own District 9 this September in Seattle, Washington. The dates are September 20 – 24, 2009 and the Westin Seattle Hotel is the training venue and hotel. Beth Lavin of the King County Sheriff’s department and her conference committee have been working hard for over two years to put together an excellent conference – not to mention it is being held in one of the favorite cities Lower 48 that we Alaskans like to respite to! Please visit the conference link at http://www.iawp.us/ and seriously consider making plans to attend. I hope to see a strong contingent from WPA and Alaska attend the conference in support of our District 9 sisters in Seattle.
Don’t forget that WPA has a scholarship program and applications are currently being accepted for the 2009 – 2010 school year. You may print off an application at the “Scholarship” link. Last year we awarded two $1,000 scholarships in partnership with ProComm of Alaska, the authorized Motorola dealer for Alaska.
If you have any newsworthy items of interest for our members, announcements, achievements, etc., please e-mail that information to Angella Long at angella.long@womenpoliceofalaska.org. Any questions or concerns about Women Police of Alaska may be directed to me, Michele Logan, at michele.logan@womenpoliceofalaska.org. As always, you can stay abreast of what goes on at our scheduled meetings if you are unable to attend by clicking on the link to “Meeting Minutes.”
Until next time, stay safe!
Your President,
Michele Logan