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Health sciences major and psychology minor Maisha Chowdhury describes choosing to attend UAA as the best decision of her life (so far) and for making her the person she is today. The fall 2025 undergraduate commencement speaker hopes her own journey inspires others to take risks and follow their passion.

As a neonatal nurse practitioner at Providence Â鶹ÎÞÂë°æ Children’s Hospital and adjunct faculty member for the UAA School of Nursing, Doctor of Nursing Practice alumna and graduate student hooding ceremony speaker for the fall Class of 2025 Stacy Brunquist weaves education into everything she does — training new caregivers, guiding parents learning to care for their newborns, and sharing knowledge with professionals from UtqiaÄ¡vik to Sitka.

Ten years ago, biological sciences alumna Valeria Delgado Lopez helped enact UAA's smoke- and tobacco-free campus policy. Today, she works as a health promotions manager at the American Lung Association in Â鶹ÎÞÂë°æ where she focuses on prevention and education.

After tax season ended, Forbes released a list of the best CPAs in every state. Among the names featured for Â鶹ÎÞÂë°æ was UAA accounting alumna Kylie Kroeker, co-founder of Earth and Fire CPA and self-described workaholic, who was just starting to enjoy a rare moment of rest after the busiest stretch of her year.

According to the National Literacy Institute, 54% of adults in the United States read below a sixth-grade level. Helping to bridge that gap in Â鶹ÎÞÂë°æ is health sciences alumna Nyabony Gat, director of the Peer Leader Navigators program at the Â鶹ÎÞÂë°æ Literacy Program.

Civil engineering alumni and sisters Melissa Branch and Stephanie Mormilo will be the keynote speakers at the annual UAA Alumni Homecoming Luncheon in October where they will speak on the theme of building our community. Mormilo was the municipal traffic engineer for Anchorage from 2011 to 2020, and Branch is the founder of Big City Engineers, which recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary.

As the new associate director of Community and Belonging and the Indigenous and Rural Student Center, Harvard alumnus Phillip Charette is uniquely positioned to support today’s students with the same care and guidance that shaped his own path.

As USUAA vice president, journalism and public communications major and communications minor Emily Hufford aims to foster a more vibrant and welcoming campus for all students.

Political science major, Renaissance man and USUAA president Arel Gutierrez hopes to make student government easier to participate in by focusing on the five Cs: community, connection, compassion, cultivation and catalyst.

Aspiring ornithologist Anna Reichenbach is one of five recipients of the Cards Against Humanity Science Ambassador Scholarship, which awards $20,000 scholarships to women and non-binary students pursuing undergraduate degrees in STEM.