
Pauline Okitkun
Tribal Administrator - Village of Kotlik
Kotlik, AK
Sabbatical Award Year: 2027
Organization Description
The Village of Kotlik is a small Yup’ik village in Western Alaska, located near the mouth of the Yukon River along the Bering Sea coast. Subsistence fishing, hunting, and gathering play important roles in sustaining families, preserving cultural traditions, and sharing resources across generations.
Tribal Administrator Pauline Okitkun is “always creating more work” for herself by developing new programs and services to improve life for the people of Kotlik. She manages her tribe’s overall operations, financial compliance, grant administration, employee supervision, and policy development. She will use her sabbatical to take her first-ever vacation away from work and spend time with family, doing subsistence activities and crafts, including beadwork, embroidery, and skin sewing.