Email: karen.perdue@alaska.edu

Phone: 907.450.8017 Fax: 907.450.8002 Suite 202 Butrovich Bldg., Fairbanks, AK 99775-5320

Karen Perdue is the Associate Vice President for Health at the University of Alaska. She was named to the position in October 2001 to help develop health and social sciences capacity throughout the university.

From 1994 to 2001, Perdue, a graduate of Stanford University, served as Alaska's Commissioner of Health and Social Services, overseeing 2,200 employees and a budget of $1.2 billion. She was the longest serving DHSS Commissioner since statehood. During her tenure, she led the state's efforts in welfare reform, the development of Denali Kidcare, Smart Start, a comprehensive initiative in primary care and fetal alcohol syndrome and many other initiatives. She co-founded the Governor's Children's Cabinet.

Perdue serves as a member of the National Rural Advisory Commission on Health and Human Services, the Providence Alaska Region Advisory Board, and the Fairbanks Memorial Hospital Foundation Board. She serves as the U.S. representative on Sustainable Development for the Arctic Council, an eight-member arctic nation forum. She represents the University on the Denali Commission.

She is the recipient of numerous awards including the Dot Truran Advocate Award for Persons with Disabilities, YWCA Woman of Distinction, Alaska Meritorious Health Service Award, national and state recognitions for FAS advocacy and a Friend of EMS Award. She is an honorary public health nurse, March of Dimes Friend of Nursing and in 2000 was named as one of the 25 most powerful Alaskans by the Alaska Journal of Commerce.

Recently, she was the Alaska Historical Society recipient of the Esther Billman Award of Excellence and the National Education Television Association recipient of excellence for activities related to her role as leader of the University’s of Alaska’s Creating Alaska project. This project celebrated the 50th anniversary of the writing of the State of Alaska’s constitution. She is now leading the University’s celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Statehood to take place in 2008-2009.