A Department of Transportation insider is the new manager of the agency’s division overseeing Southeast Alaska.
Commissioner Marc Luiken on Tuesday announced Rob Campbell will fill in as interim director of DOT’s Southcoast Region. That includes Southeast, plus coastal Southcentral and Southwest Alaska. Campbell already directs the department’s Central Region, which includes Anchorage and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.
Luiken says expanding the job will help integrate agency offices.
“What we’re trying to do is create a more unified department, a department that functions as a single entity instead of separate silos that have certainly evolved over time.”
The position has been open since Gov. Bill Walker removed Al Clough during a conflict over the Juneau Access Road.
Luiken says a separate Southcoast Region director will be named at a later date.
Campbell filled in as director of the Department of Transportation’s Northern Region before taking the Central Region post.
Luiken says that experience will help break down barriers.
“By having Rob do a similar assignment down here in the Southcoast region, I see a huge benefit in the same way that we saw with the northern region and the central region, to bring our organization together as a single organization.”
Southeast used to be a separate region. A department-wide reorganization merged it with the other coastal areas last year.
Luiken announced the appointment at the Southeast Conference’s Mid-Session Summit in Juneau
Ed Schoenfeld is Regional News Director for CoastAlaska, a consortium of public radio stations in Ketchikan, Juneau, Sitka, Petersburg and Wrangell.
He primarily covers Southeast Alaska regional topics, including the state ferry system, transboundary mining, the Tongass National Forest and Native corporations and issues.
He has also worked as a manager, editor and reporter for the Juneau Empire newspaper and Juneau public radio station KTOO. He’s also reported for commercial station KINY in Juneau and public stations KPFA in Berkley, WYSO in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and WUHY in Philadelphia. He’s lived in Alaska since 1979 and is a contributor to Alaska Public Radio Network newscasts, the Northwest (Public Radio) News Network and National Native News. He is a board member of the Alaska Press Club. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, he lives in Douglas.
