Marcia Howell began working at the Alaska Injury Prevention Center in 2000 and was named executive director in 2008. Under her leadership, the organization developed multiple new funding sources.

She planned to spend her two-and-a-half month sabbatical visiting family in the Lower 48 and there was talk of backpacking a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail. Physical activity — tennis, cycling — will be high on her list of sabbatical activities. “I know that I do my best thinking when my body is moving,” she says.