Featured Speakers

Edward Alexander is the Senior Arctic Lead of the Woodwell Climate Research Center, working within the “Permafrost Pathways” and “North Fire” programs to advance understanding of wildland fire’s climate impacts and abrupt permafrost thaw in the Arctic-boreal Zone—the largest terrestrial carbon sink on Earth. He works in an interdisciplinary manner, bridging Indigenous Knowledge and climate science to address the circumpolar wildland fire crisis, advance policy solutions, and elevate Indigenous fire management and cultural burning practices, helping Arctic communities and policymakers build adaptation capacity and resilience.

Edward has served in leadership for three decades across education, cultural and language revitalization, and climate work at tribal, international, national, state, and local levels. He is Co-Chair of Gwich’in Council International, appointed by the Gwich’in Chiefs of Alaska for over a decade, representing Gwich’in across Alaska, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories internationally. He has served as Head of Delegation to the Senior Arctic Officials and CAFF, and currently serves as Gwich’in HOD to the Arctic Council’s EPPR working group and the Expert Group on Black Carbon and Methane. He co-led the Arctic Council’s Norwegian Chairship Initiative on Wildland Fire and now co-chairs the Informal Wildland Fire Group, working toward a permanent pan-Arctic wildland fire entity. He also serves on the International Indigenous Fire Adaptation Network and its Interoperability Committee, supports cultural fire revitalization with the Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments, and previously served seven years as 2nd Chief of the Gwichyaa Zhee Gwich’in.

Raised in Fort Yukon, Alaska, Edward is a lifelong set-net fisherman on the Yukon and Porcupine Rivers and an educator, holding degrees in Gwich’in Language Pedagogy and Secondary Education. He is a citizen of the Gwichyaa Zhee Gwich’in, married to Dr. Alisa Alexander of the Vuntut Gwich’in First Nation, with five children.