Thanks to a drop in both oil prices and production, Alaska is facing another major budget deficit this year. Cutting spending, raising taxes, and dipping into the Permanent Fund are all on the table in this video.
Rachel Waldholz covers energy and the environment for Alaska's Energy Desk, a collaboration between Alaska Public Media, KTOO in Juneau and KUCB in Unalaska. Before coming to Anchorage, she spent two years reporting for Raven Radio in Sitka. Rachel studied documentary production at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, and her short film, A Confused War won several awards. Her work has appeared on Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Marketplace, among other outlets.
rwaldholz (at) alaskapublic (dot) org | 907.550.8432 | About Rachel
Eric is a video producer for Alaska's Energy Desk. While he never learned the proper way to ride a horse while growing up in Wyoming, he did manage to become a proficient video cable wrangler thanks to a volunteer gig at Wyoming PBS. After graduating from Ithaca College with a Bachelors degree in Television-Radio Production, Eric spent a couple years traveling around Oregon and Washington as a Multimedia Producer for a regional newspaper company, covering everything from sand sculpting competitions to sled dog races. From there, he transitioned to a more stationary gig in Portland, where he developed and managed a team of video editors at a startup news production company. The call of the road sent Eric north, where he’s happy to once again be producing video and audio in the field. Outside of work, Eric is hoping to spend as much time as he can exploring Alaska (it’s so close to Anchorage), climbing around on rocks, and perhaps finally learning how to ride a horse.
eketo (at) alaskapublic (dot) org | 907.550.8494 | About Eric
Kaysie Ellingson got her start as a video producer while attending the University of Southern California for her Master’s Degree in journalism. What started out as a pursuit to become an international reporter for papers became a desire to produce documentaries.
While at USC she took on many video projects ranging from various freelancing gigs to starting a web series, ClefCity, where viewers could catch interviews with popular (not mainstream) musicians. But it was her work at IMPACT, the university’s video newsmagazine, that had the heaviest hand in propelling her into video production. She graduated in May 2014 and having never been to Alaska, moved up in the winter of 2015 to work at Alaska Public Media as a video producer.
One random bit of information is that prior to graduate school Ellingson worked as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching English in Kazakhstan. Some of her fondest memories involve drinking fermented horse milk, testing out how many people can actually fit into a car and of course entertaining her students with her horrible Kazakh speaking skills. She hopes to return someday soon. In the meantime she is enjoying the similar climate of Alaska.
kellingson (at) alaskapublic (dot) org | 907.550.8419 | About Kaysie
