Monday, June 8, 2026

The University of Washington’s WWAMI medical school program just received a new $25 million endowment for scholarships and rural education support, as Alaska Public Media’s Rachel Cassandra reports.

The program gets its name from the five states it serves – Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho – and educates emerging physicians in those rural states.

Dr. Nick Phelps, WWAMI’s assistant dean at the University of Alaska Anchorage, says the gift will go to scholarships for 30 eligible students across the five-state class.

“For the students who are accepted to receive this scholarship, it covers half of their tuition.”

Phelps says those eligible to apply for the scholarships are students in two specific programs: one, a rural track, and the other, a tribal and traditional medicine track.

Medical school tuition – and the debt students take on to pay it – can run in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Phelps says the scholarships change the financial equation.

“Primary care practices and primary care physicians… are the bedrock of medicine, for lack of a better term. They’re also some of the lowest paid specialties for students to go into, so for somebody who really is strongly interested in family medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine, some of those other primary care specialties, they have to do a bit of an internal calculus.”

Many medical students choose specialties that pay better, which has helped create a shortage of primary care practitioners, both in Alaska and across the U.S.

Phelps notes that the U.S. Department of Education will soon start limiting student loan amounts that Americans can take out for higher education, including medical school.

Philanthropists William and Carolyn Franke and their family gave the WWAMI program the $25 million endowment to create the Franke Medical Student Scholars Program.

Phelps says he hopes that the resulting scholarships encourage more Alaska students to focus on medicine that serves rural, remote and Indigenous Alaskans.

An energy company is asking for preliminary approval from the feds to look into building a hydropower project on the Navajo Nation.

KNAU’s Chris Clements has more.

The company Nature and People First is asking for a preliminary permit from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to investigate building a pumped storage project near Chilchinbeto, Ariz.

It would include two reservoirs holding a total of 20,000 acre-feet of water.

Pumped storage projects generate energy by letting water flow downhill and then pumping it back up.

Nature and People First tried to get federal approval for three pumped storage projects in 2021, but the Navajo Nation and the feds later said no.

Critics cited concerns about overuse of aquifers and damage to the environment of nearby Black Mesa, which is considered sacred by the Navajo and Hopi tribes.

If it is granted, the permit would not allow the company to disturb any land or give them permission to enter private property.

Thousands of Alaska Natives and visitors gathered in Juneau, Alaska last week for Celebration 2026, one of the largest Indigenous cultural events in the state.

The four-day gathering, organized by Sealaska Heritage Institute, brought together Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian dancers, artists, and culture bearers from across Southeast Alaska, Canada, and beyond.

The event featured traditional song and dance performances, Native art, language activities, and cultural workshops.

This year’s theme was “Enduring Strength”.

Celebration began more than 40 years ago as a way to preserve Native cultures and pass traditional knowledge to younger generations.

Organizers say the event continues to showcase the survival and persistence of Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian traditions while strengthening connections among Indigenous communities throughout the region.