Work with Us: Introducing Forum Workshop & Planning Services!

During my first year with the Forum in 2023, we set an ambitious goal: to cross-train our team in program delivery, and focus on really strengthening our collective skills as designers and facilitators of impactful, participatory, community-building experiences. For decades, the Forum has been asked to convene and facilitate groups of Alaskans to dig into everything from how to best manage the Permanent Fund to how to bridge our urban-rural divides. We’d experienced years of external growth, and we wanted to focus internally to set ourselves up for future success. Since then, our team has designed and facilitated powerful statewide gatherings together; executed hundreds of hours of workshops and dialogues for youth, educators, community-minded leaders, and organizations; and fully honed the “Forum Flavor”--that special mix of curiosity, creativity, and trust building which is a part of every gathering we host.

Now, we are excited to introduce a suite of Forum workshops and strategic planning services that organizations, businesses, and networks can take advantage of! We are inviting community partners to Work With Us as you envision your next community or team gathering, youth event, board retreat or planning initiative.

These new services build on our decades of work hosting meaningful conversations that connect Alaskans, build trust and a sense of belonging, and strengthen our communities.

What Is the Work?

Community-centered facilitation is at the core of all that we do. As CEO Kameron Perez-Verdia says, “Every time we bring people together—whether in a village school, a city boardroom, or a leadership retreat… we are drawing on the stories that shape us, the relationships that sustain us, and the wisdom that lives within our communities. And we are building something lasting—not just understanding, but momentum. Not just connection, but action.” Below is a sampling of services our team can offer:

Strengthening Community Leadership: These workshops are ideal for strengthening your team and developing compassionate leadership. Participants plan and facilitate dialogues that uncover shared values; engage across divides by centering listening and understanding; and share stories that inspire hope, connection, and collective action. Workshops include Storytelling to Build Community, Leading Conversations to Build Community, Depolarizing Conversations to Build Community.

Cultural Responsiveness: These workshops help participants explore their own cultural identities, recognize the experiences of others, and develop the skills to engage more thoughtfully across difference. Workshops include Seeing Your Own Lens, Fostering Cultural Awareness at Work, and Cultivating a Rooted Cultural Identity.

Youth: The Forum also designs and facilitates workshops that help middle and high school-aged youth connect across distance & difference, bolster protective factors for mental health, and increase postsecondary success by strengthening confidence in cultural identity. These include Story Works workshops, Thrive Together, and the AK|Next leadership academy.

Community-Engaged/Strategic Planning: Our team is skilled at designing and facilitating experiences that help organizations get meaningful community input on initiatives; and that engage staff and board with creative thinking and planning. Our unique approach fosters trust, uncovers patterns across diverse perspectives, and creates a foundation for collaborative action.

Being able to offer these services, tapping into the individual talent and collective skills of our team, is an incredible growth moment for the Forum.

So, how did we get here?

The Forum Flavor

Since becoming a 501c(3) organization under the leadership of Gary Holthaus years ago, the Alaska Humanities Forum has been a convener: a place for people to gather, reflect, and engage with one another on the most pressing issues of the day.

When our current CEO Kameron Perez-Verdia came to work at the Forum in 2016, he brought with him a deep belief in the power of convening and participatory leadership. Prior to the Forum, he had spent years doing community-based work, and along the way, had been profoundly influenced by thinkers like Margaret Wheatley, Peter Block, and Parker Palmer: “Their teachings helped me understand that real, lasting change—whether social, political, environmental, or economic—comes from spaces where people can gather with intention, build trust, and engage in meaningful dialogue.”

Under Kameron’s leadership, the Forum hired a growing team of skilled individuals who understand the importance and impact of creating such experiences, and who bring their own passions for community building and connection to the organization.

Megan Cacciola, former Vice President of Programs at the Forum, transformed these shared values of community and connection into concrete programming, helping launch workshops like Leading Conversations That Build Community. This foundational workshop offers the opportunity to learn first-hand how to design and facilitate conversations that surface shared values and build trust. Hundreds of Alaskans have participated in this workshop, including college students, business owners, pastors, and community organizers. Director of Conversation Programs Taylor Strelevitz now leads these workshops, training other staff in the design and facilitation. Taylor has also trained in how to facilitate heated topics and has brought that skillset to our team. Taylor says, “I’ve learned that when we slow down and take time to build understanding- especially across cultures and experiences- we give our communities the strength to face conflict without falling apart.”

Other team members helped develop and evolve the Forum’s current workshop portfolio: Amanda Dale (now Development and Communications Director) created our Seeing Your Own Lens workshop, helping people step back from their regular work routines to reflect on how their assumptions, expectations, and values affect their relationships and work styles. Leadership Programs Director Chuck Seaca brought his training in Public Narrative to Alaska, adding Forum elements to create Storytelling to Build Community which helps participants uncover their calling and share their purpose with others.

Through these individual workshops, we began to surface our collective DNA, that “Forum Flavor,” as former staff Emily Brockman jokingly called it during one staff meeting. Then we went through an intensive period of co-design and co-facilitation to strengthen these threads of connection. I recall traveling to Soldotna in 2024 with Directors Shoshi (Bieler), Taylor, Amanda, and Chuck during one of our initial Storytelling to Build Community workshops. It felt incredible having their skills all in one room, tapping into everyone’s distinct experiences, all leveraged for a shared purpose to benefit participants. It was energizing to be working so closely together, and feeling like we were building something bigger across the organization!

The Opportunity

Over the past few years, our public workshops have been at capacity; and nonprofits, Alaska Native corporations, and even local governments have requested tailored opportunities for their team, network, or community. These requests range from leadership development and team-building retreats to cross-cultural engagement and dialogue facilitation. We have designed and facilitated those opportunities for organizations like Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, the Central Peninsula Hospital, Mat-Su Health Foundation, the Alaska Court System, United Way of Anchorage, and Alaska Pacific University.

These partnerships have not been one-off experiences, but rather deep engagements rooted in relationship and shared purpose.

And then, crisis struck: in April 2025, we lost significant funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. This presented a daunting challenge, and created an opportunity for our team: to crystalize the services we could offer, and do it in a way that would allow us to sustain our work and continue to strengthen communities.

Let’s Get Started

We are ready to partner with nonprofits, foundations, government agencies, businesses, and others who share a commitment to strengthening Alaska's future.

If you’re excited or inspired by what’s possible; or perhaps feeling stuck, and want to engage our team, you can fill out this form. If you’re not sure where to begin, please email me at pcarr@akhf.org and we’ll schedule a conversation!