Staff and Board

Linda Behnken first traveled to Sitka in 1982 as a college student, hoping to find a job on a fishing boat. After a summer of longline fishing, she knew she wanted to be part of the fishing community and work to sustain it. Linda worked as crew on a number of different boats from Sitka to the Bering Sea and has earned a livelihood as a commercial fisherman on her own boat since 1991. She has been Executive Director of the Alaska Longline Fisherman’s Association since 1998, as well as serving on the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and the National Academy of Science Individual Fishing Quota Review Panel, among others. Linda has been instrumental in a number of conservation initiatives and fisheries management measures, including creating a Sustainable Fisheries Trust in Alaska. The Trusts’ mission is to achieve triple bottom line objectives—economic, ecological and social— by investing in access opportunities for community-based fishermen dedicated to sustainable fishing practices. Linda’s involvement in the Island Institute comes from a deep commitment to place and community, and the desire to improve her relationship with both.

Reid Magdanz was born and raised in Bush Alaska – 14 years in Kotzebue, four in Nome. He has an enduring interest in Alaska, in particular the challenges and opportunities in its rural areas. That interest outlasted four years of college on the East Coast at Yale and a year abroad in Laos, leading him back to the state and a job in the state legislature with Sitka-based Representative and former classmate Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins. Reid’s (as yet limited) academic and professional experience has focused on government, public policy, and natural resources. Reid loves the Alaska way of life, and does his best to keep connected to it in both the Northwest and Southeast reaches of the state. He was drawn to the Island Institute by its focus on place and community, which together comprise a huge part of what makes Alaska special.