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The alaska traditional kitchen

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MEET THE TEAM

Melissa Chlupach
As a non-Indigenous person who grew up in Alaska on Native land, Melissa's work is part of a personal commitment to reconciliation. She strives to work in partnership with Indigenous peoples to improve health through access to traditional and Indigenous foods.

She attended the University of Idaho and worked as a Regional Healthcare Dietitian at NANA Management Services for 12 years, where she supported food service contracts in Alaska and Arizona. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor in ÀÏ°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±¼Ç¼'s Dietetics and Nutrition department and also serves on the Alaska Food Policy Council board. Melissa teaches a variety of courses, including Alaska Native Nutrition and Nutrition Through the Life Cycle.

Her most significant project is the traditional foods initiative in Alaska, where she collaborates with organizations such as the Alaska Native Medical Center and the San Carlos Apache Healthcare Corporation to implement traditional food programs.

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Flora Deacon
Flora is an Athabascan chef from Grayling, Alaska. Her late father, Wilson Deacon, was from Holikachuk, and her mother, Edna, was from Shageluk. Flora attended elementary school in Shageluk and Grayling before graduating from Chemawa Indian High School in Salem, Oregon. After working in accounting for some time, Flora decided to pursue her passion for cooking and earned an Associate in Occupational Studies from the New England Culinary School in Montpelier, Vermont.

Flora's interest in food as medicine led her to earn a certificate from the UAF Troth Yeddha’ Nutrition project in 2010. She later collaborated with Sarah McConnell to create an associate interdisciplinary degree in rural nutrition through UAF in 2013, which she completed in December 2018. Flora's current goal is to establish contacts and build relationships to promote traditional and local food through classes and recipe demonstrations.