Instructors
Margo Klass
Margo left Washington DC to come to Fairbanks over ten years ago. Here she continues her teaching career while creating artist books and box constructions in her home studio. Her work is widely shown in Alaska. She has been involved with Northwoods Book Arts Guild since it was founded in 2011.
Carol Kleckner
In Memoriam
Carol was a 35 year Alaska resident who loved to play music (ukulele and harmonica being her favorites) but was deathly intimidated by going to jams. After getting brave and attending a few jams, she would love to share her thoughts and get more people out enjoying the fabulous music scene in Fairbanks.
Lisa Kljaich
Lisa Kljaich, aka The Ukulele Fool, has been teaching music full-time since 1983, with teaching experiences from pre-school to Osher Lifelong Learning and everything in between. She has been teaching online for UAF since 2009. It has been wonderful to have students as elementary kids catch up with her again at UAF, and then teach their parents through The Folk School.
In 2019 she officially launched a career as a YouTuber, focusing on deliberately paced, detail-oriented ukulele instruction for beginners and advanced beginners. This has given her an international reach with students all over the globe – folks logging in the wee hours of the morning in Australia, to night owls staying up late in Central Europe to catch the same lesson.
Rachael Kvapil
Rachael Kvapil is a lifelong road cyclist who fell in love with fat biking in 2014. In 2016, she competed in the Icicle Bicycle multi-stage winter race and after a recreational ride with a top Alaskan fat biker, decided to train for several ultra-distance races including the White Mountains 100 and the Susitna 100. Despite participating in a number of competitions, Rachael is a commuter at heart and considers her form of winter training and racing as “aggressive tourism.” She seeks to create an inclusive riding environment for both recreation and competitive riders of all ages and all abilities.
Matthew Labrenz
Matt’s connection with trees has led to work in carpentry, cabinet-making, silviculture, and environmental education. His first woodworking project that he remembers really obsessing over was a clipboard. He has since built cabins, cabinets, and furniture. While most of the things he cares about have a clear link to trees, he does enjoy other things, including gardening, ski-joring, and fishing. Matt currently works in UAF Cooperative Extension’s agriculture program.
Ethan Lauesen
Ethan Lauesen is a visual artist, gallery technician, and framer based in Fairbanks, Alaska. They earned their BFA from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2019. The body of work they create focuses on the cultural aspects of gender and LGBTQIA+ identity and how they are perceived in communities, specifically Interior Alaska. The work they produce is more intimate as a response to cultural perceptions of themselves due to inter-sectional issues of race, gender, and sexuality and as a result the prints, paintings, and drawings created represent a personal narrative documenting cultural change.
Kathy Lenniger
I started driving dogs in Nenana in 1976, learning many things the hard way until I met experienced racers who taught me how to finally be a dog driver. I started doing tours in 1980, and in 1985 started Sled Dog Adventures with a partner. I became the sole owner in 1997. I have driven teams in many areas in the state, full-time all winter since 1980. I am listed in the UAF Archives in the History of Dogmushing, and was featured in the News-Miner in January 2017. I am still learning and I have a deep respect for the amazing Alaska husky, and have raised some and owned many through the years. I now take in unwanted or retired race dogs who still love to take visitors into the beauty of nature.
Jennifer Lent
Jennifer lives in Fairbanks but works in Bethel. While in Bethel, Jennifer has met many artitsts from the area and the surrounding villages. She has learned how to harvest grass from the banks of the Kuskokwim River and sew baskets. She has learned to tan and sew with fur. Her most unique skill acquired thus far is the working knowledge of tanning and sewing with fish skin and animal gut. Jennifer sews many items for friends, family, and customers. You may have seen her work most recently at the Morris Thompson Cultural Center First Friday art event in December, 2014.
Emily Leon
My name is Emily Leon (Chagluak). My parents are Gabriel and Kathryn Chagluak. I grew up in the predominantly Yupik village of Toksook Bay, which is located on the southwestern coast of Alaska. I am married to the wonderful Alex Leon, and together we have two beautiful children, Andrew and Rachel.
Frozen Stitches began with the gift of a qaspeq to a dear friend of mine. Soon after, all the ladies in the office inquired about buying a qaspeq from me. The rest, as they say, “is history!”
Rebecca Levey
Rebecca Levey is a registered Institute for Excellence in Writing teacher. She also teaches essay writing with the Circe Institute’s Lost Tools of Writing curriculum. She teaches both High School and Elementary students.
Steve Levey
Steve Levey has an MA in history from the University of Colorado. He taught high school history for ten years. Many of his students in Honors World History at West Valley High School took the World History AP test without AP-specific preparation. His class, World History: An Early College Survey Course, started as a whimsical dare from a colleague and a challenge to students. Over the years, all but one student passed the exam to merit college credit for their achievement in 10th grade.
Mary Baarlaer Maisch
A recently retired teacher, I relish the time I now have available to pursue my artistic interests, primarily book making and quilting. I have been a member of the Northwoods Book Arts Guild since it’s inception in 2011, and have been delighted to be involved in a thriving book arts community in Fairbanks. I am grateful to be able to share art projects at our beautiful Folk School Fairbanks campus.
In addition to art making, I enjoy travel, skiing, canoeing, hiking, camping, gardening and reading.
Karen Malone
Karen has lived in Fairbanks for 37 years. She grew up in Iowa where she learned to sew in 4-H at the age of eleven. She has been a fabric collector and sewer ever since. In those 50+ years she has sewn everything from clothes, sports gear, home decor, costumes, toys, art dolls, and many other items requested by her family. She enjoys trying most techniques she hears, sees, or reads about just to see if she might enjoy it.
She dyed her first batch of fabric in 2008 and finds she can’t get enough of it. She remembers running through the house looking for just one more white item needing color. She loves the serendipity of dyeing and other fabric art techniques. The thrill of discovering new techniques and the joy of revisiting old methods keeps her engaged with the subject. She is always excited to find new friends to enjoy the rewards of creating.
John Manthei
John has been a carpenter/cabinetmaker for nearly half a century and now spends a considerable amount of time teaching through The Folk School. He is one of the founders of Week in the Woods and The Folk School. John’s intimate connection to the land and rivers of the interior drives most everything he does.
john@folk.school
Phil Marshall
Phil has studied traditional hand woodcarving in Austria and Norway, and studied under German and Italian masters in the U.S. “Woodworking smooths and hones my life. This revelation surprised me twenty-three years ago when I tried my hand at woodcarving. There had never been any signs this pursuit would become such a joy. I had not manifested artistic talent. But a visit to a remote Colorado gallery of hand-carved, wooden sculpture inspired my wife to present me with a set of beginner’s chisels and gouges; I grabbed an instruction booklet and gave it a go, solo. Perhaps she had sensed something I had not: the time was right in my life for the conjunction of hand, head and heart. Quite unforseen was the equanimity this handcraft brought. Hitherto, many of my endeavors had been struggles full of frustration. This woodcraft flowed calmly, full of acceptance, even with setbacks. Here was a clear, inexplicable pleasure replete with satisfaction even with miniscule advances, nay reverses, in pursuing the skill.
If we join to grow together, I shall try to nurture this fulfillment for you by sharing in small, definite steps; reinforcing them frequently; sequencing them slowly to handle growing complexity; and then bringing it all together in a supportive manner to reduce stress. I proffer a hand for you to discern your destiny.”
Steve & Sarah Masterman
Steve and Sarah Masterman have an orchard producing apples, plums, cherries and honeyberries in the Cripple Creek Neighborhood of Fairbanks. They have pear trees too, but it would be an exaggeration to call those productive. They have been selling grafted fruit trees for 12 years and teaching grafting classes for several years.
Siqiñiq Maupin
Siqiniq Maupin (she/her they/them) is the director of Sovereign Inupiat for a Living Arctic (SILA) under the Northern Center. She is Inupiaq from Utqiagvik and Nuiqsut currently living in Fairbanks, Alaska. They have worked towards a just transition though an environmental and social justice framework with an Indigenous lens. Their focus is the connection between the health of the land and the health of communities including mental, physical, and spiritual health. In her off time she is a mother of two kids, three dogs, and an artist. silainuat.org
Carol McIntyre
Carol McIntyre is a Wildlife Biologist with Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska. She started studying the ecology of Golden Eagles and other birds in Denali in 1987. She has published the results of her studies in scientific journals and co-authored the Birds of the World Golden Eagle species account and the book, Birds of Denali. Carol was elected a Fellow of the American Ornithologists’ Union in 2016 and presented with the Raptor Research Foundation’s Fran and Frederick Hamerstrom Award in 2021. When she isn’t in the field studying birds, she’s out on the trail with her husband Ray and their small team of very large Alaska sled dogs.
Kendalyn Mckisick
Kendalyn Mckisick is a recent creative writing MFA graduate of UAF who now lives in Anchorage. Though she has spent the past few years in Fairbanks writing poetry and teaching writing, she is originally from Little Rock, Arkansas, where she taught several vegan cooking classes and owned a restaurant specializing in raw vegan options with “cooked food Fridays”. She is passionate about food literacy and showing others how to prepare delicious plant-based meals for longer, happier, and healthier lives.
krmckisick@gmail.com
Amy Meissner
Anchorage Alaska artist, Amy Meissner, combines traditional handwork, found objects and abandoned textiles to reference the literal, physical, and emotional labor of women. Her background is in clothing design, illustration, and creative writing, all of which combine in craft- and cloth-based work.