Alaska Legislature: Senate Health & Social Services, 4/16/26, 3:30pm

This hearing of the Senate Health and Social Services Committee will now come to order. Today is Thursday, April 16th. The time is 3:30. We're in Butrovich Room 205. Members present are Senator Tobin, Senator Giesel, myself, Senator Dunbar.

Senator Myers is excused, and we expect Senator Clayman here shortly. Let the record reflect that we have a quorum to conduct business. Before we begin, I would like to thank Mary Gwen Kawakami, the Senate Health and Social Services Recording Secretary, and Kyla Tupou from the Juneau L.A.O. For staffing the committee today. Today's agenda, we have one item, but many folks to confirm to various boards for the governor.

We have confirmation hearings today. So we will begin. Committee members have resumes and applications in front of them. For members of the public, the documents can be found on BASIS. The plan today is to hear a statement from each appointee, have the committee members ask questions, and we will hear public testimony for all appointees at the end of the meeting.

For those appointees that are online, I'm not going to set a firm, you know, 2-minute or 5-minute limit, but I'll just say we have a lot of folks to get through, so, you know, brevity is appreciated. First up, we have Ashley Scholl, or Shawley, the Board of Nursing. Ms. Shawley, please state your name for the record and begin your testimony. Actually, I don't see them online yet. Are they online?

Oh, okay. Well, that's unfortunate. Um, we will come back to Ms. Shawley. We'll go instead to Michael Sanders, appointee to the Board of Dental Examiners. Mr. Stan— Dr. Sanders, please state your name for the record and begin your testimony.

Michael R. Sanders. Good afternoon, Chair Dunbar and members of the committee. My name is Dr. Michael Sanders. I want to first thank you for your time today. I know you have a busy schedule and a packed agenda, so I'll keep this brief.

I've been an Alaska resident for 53 years. I grew up in Fairbanks where my dad was a state trooper and my mom was a teacher. I completed my undergraduate work at UAA. Earned my DMD from Boston University and was accepted into a residency program with the U.S. Army. After this program, I was stationed at Fort Wainwright, and from there I deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

After my military service, I transitioned to private practice and have owned my group practice in Eagle River since 2005. I've served as an expert witness in the dental field for the past 5 years. This experience has given me a thorough understanding of the legal and regulatory aspects of dentistry, including standards of care, documentation, disciplinary processes— skills I believe will directly support the board and its mission to ensure fair licensing, consistent enforcement, and protection of the public. I thank Governor Dunleavy for the nomination, and I appreciate the legislature's role in confirming qualified individuals to this important board. While I did not actively seek this position, I accepted out of a deep sense of duty to give back to the profession and our great state.

If confirmed, I will serve with full commitment, impartiality, and dedication, collaborating with board members, licensees, and the public to uphold high standards and support access to quality dental care across Alaska. Thank you for your time, and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you, Dr. Sanders. A question from Senator Tobin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Sanders— or excuse me, Dr. Sanders— you do have a pretty broad swath in, uh, amount of experience, and I'd love to hear a little bit about your thoughts on dental access and dental hygiene and those types of programs in rural Alaska, as the, the Board of Dental Examiners does provide input and insight and oversight over the profession, not just for urban centers but also in rural communities.

Mr. Chair, that's a great question. I have actually practiced a bit in Kotzebue and Milotak, so I've seen rural Alaska. I've seen the access or the lack of access to care. I've lectured through the medical residency through Providence Hospital about access to care and what they likely will see out in the villages or remote Alaska.

So specific to the dental board, anything that we can do to ease The regulatory process.

And approve programs in rural Alaska is certainly worth consideration as long as we can keep it safe. And you bet, let's— I'm all for it, obviously. Thank you. Thank you, Senator Tobin. All right, Dr. Sanders, I don't see any further questions.

Oh, sorry, we have Senator Clayman. I didn't raise my hand. Go ahead. Dr. Sanders, is this your first appointment to the board? Yes, yes it is.

Okay, thank you. Thank you, Senator Clayman. Thank you, Dr. Sanders. I don't see any further, uh, don't see any further questions. Um, of course, if you want to send in anything further, please, you can email us, and my colleagues can also email you if anything comes up between now and the actual confirmation vote.

Likely in May. So thank you very much for your time today.

Okay, moving on to Mr. Charles Rudstrom, Board of Examiners in Optometry. Mr. Rudstrom, could you please put yourself on the record and begin your testimony?

Good afternoon, my name is Charles Rudstrom. I'm, uh, served on the Board of optometry for one session, and I'm up for renewal, I guess, for a second time. I'm just happy to be a public member and try and represent the public and ensure that we continue to have safe and accessible optometry services.

Thank you, Mr. Rudstrom. And we of course have your, uh, we have your resume here. It looks like you are a project manager and perhaps engineer by trade.

I guess one question I have for you is, during your time on the board, what have been sort of the primary challenges or controversies that you guys have had to deal with, if any? Ah, yes, that's a great question. Um, The board primarily deals with licensing, licensing renewal. One challenge is trying to balance ensuring that optometrists are getting quality training but still making that accessible. We spend a lot of time discussing remote learning versus in-person training, and it's a delicate balance to make sure we're covering both but letting optometrists that live and work in rural parts of Alaska still have you know, easy ability to get that training.

Very good. We have a question from Senator— I'm sorry, Senator Giesel. Thank you, Mr. Rudstrom. You said that you had already been serving on the board in the public member seat. Could you tell me what your term of office was previously?

Excuse me, could you repeat the question? When did you serve on the Board of Optometry previously?

The previous, uh, 3 years, I guess. I was on the board for 3 years, and that, that's— that term is expired, so now I'm been nominated for another term, I guess. Thank you. The website hasn't been updated to reflect that, so I wanted to just check on that. Thank you very much.

Yes, thank you. Thank you, Senator Gisol. Thank you, Mr. Redstrom. I don't see any further questions. Again, if you have anything you'd like to follow up with, please send us an email and my colleagues might also email you.

Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Moving on to Ms. Rebecca, excuse me, Dr. Rebecca Balms from the Board of Pharmacy. Double check that they are here. They are.

Dr. Balms, please state your name for the record and begin your testimony.

Good afternoon, Chair and members of the committee. Thank you for your time. My name is Rebecca Balmes, and I'm up for the Board of Pharmacy. I am a lifelong Alaskan from Anchorage. I learned my— earned my Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Denver.

Throughout my schooling, I worked as a pharmacy technician and pharmacy intern with Kroger, serving patients in the community setting. Following graduation in 2018, my husband, who is also a pharmacist, and I returned to Alaska. Shortly thereafter, I had an opportunity to become a home infusion pharmacist with Greatland Infusion Pharmacy, a home infusion pharmacy specializing in home IV chemotherapy, hydration, antibiotics, and specialty medications, along with non-sterile medications. Unfortunately, in 2020, COVID led to the closure of Greatland Infusion Pharmacy. Following that closure, I was recruited to serve as the pharmacist in charge to help open up a new pharmacy, Infuse Alaska, with the goal of filling the gap in Anchorage created by the closure of the two largest infusion pharmacies in the state, Greatland and Geneva Woods.

Over the past 6 years, I've had the opportunity to grow my knowledge of infusion pharmacy while also learning the complexities of opening and operating a small business. In a pharmacy landscape dominated by large corporations and pharmaceutical companies. I'm interested in serving on the Board of Pharmacy because I want to help ensure safe, accessible, and high-quality care for all Alaskans. My training at the University of Colorado emphasized practicing at the top of my license, improving public health, and caring for the whole patient. This approach views pharmacists not only as dispensing professionals but as clinicians and integral members of the healthcare team.

Pharmacists are one of the most accessible healthcare providers for patients and are often underutilized for their clinical expertise. If confirmed, I want to be a part of expanding patient access to timely care, especially in rural and underserved communities in Alaska, as well as bring my experience with small business and pharmacy compounding to my fellow members of the board. I look forward to advocating for the profession of pharmacy and working to keep Alaskans safe and healthy. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Dr. Malmus.

I'd like to— so I sort of inferred from your testimony that while you might not be taking a direct position on it, you're certainly familiar of the scope of practice bill that we have working through the legislature. Another topic we've talked a lot about the legislature here is PBMs. Pharmacy benefit managers. And I was wondering if you had any experience working with pharmacy benefit managers or any thoughts on the way that they are impacting our state. Yes, as a small business, PBMs can be really difficult to deal with, especially in Alaska.

You know, we have a lot of patients outside of the main areas like Anchorage and Fairbanks. So, PBMs can often get in the way of providing care to patients. I find they often delay access. There's a lot of hoops that we have to jump through and it's not as cost-effective for a small pharmacy as it is for the major pharmacies. Very good.

Other questions from colleagues? I have a follow-up here. So, you did your training and you— you did your training and you spent some time working in Colorado. I'm wondering, are there any any lessons that maybe we could take from Colorado? Is there anything you sort of— is notable to you, the difference in the practice of pharmacy here versus in that state?

Yes, um, Colorado is actually one of the forerunners in trying to get provider status for pharmacists. I know they've been successful with that over the past couple years, and it looks like Alaska is following their example, so Pretty exciting stuff. Very good. Okay, we have a question from Senator Clayman. In terms of expanding authority for pharmacists, it sounds like you support doing so?

I do, yes. It sounded like that. I just want to make sure. Thank you. Yes.

Very good. Thank you, Dr. Balmus. We—. There aren't any further questions. Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you. Very good. Next up we have Lillian Okpoleke, excuse me, also for the Board of Pharmacy. Dr. Okpoleke, could you please put yourself on the, on the record and begin your testimony?

Thank you so much, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. And actually, you did a pretty good job on my last name, so I commend you on that. I just wanted to say thank you for the opportunity to with you today. My name is Lilian Apalike.

I've been a pharmacist for the last 20 years, 22 years. I've lived 4 years in Alaska, living in Dillingham, Alaska, as well as Bethel, Alaska, where I reside now with my son Toby. I graduated from 2004 from Florida A&M in Tallahassee, Florida, and I've worked in pharmacy in several different areas, including clinical pharmacist. I've been a professor of psychopharmacology to nurse practitioners, a deputy director, and I'm currently the director of pharmacy at UConn.

Kwesukwem Health Corporation in Bethel, Alaska. I just want to say definitely I truly love Alaska and I wish I had moved here 20 years ago when I knew about Alaska and the so many opportunities here. The people here are truly wonderful people and are community-oriented. I experienced that firsthand during Typhoon Halong in October 2025 and seeing how the community came together very quickly during a time of despair and how the providers and pharmacists work together to support the patients that lost everything during the storm and how pharmacists can do more during that time of despair in Alaska. So, I just wanted to say thank you to our governor for the appointment, and if confirmed, I will dedicate my time to the highest ideals while serving the Alaska community.

And I thank you again for your time to listening to my testimony. Thank you, Dr. Uh, do we have any questions here?

Looking through your resume here, very long and impressive.

I see you're part of the Nigerian Pharmacists Association of Tampa Bay. That's, that's very, that's, it's interesting. It's a very, very, very different, I'm sure, than your experience now in Yukon-Kuskokwim. So that's, it's great that you have this, this really, this very broad and kind of experience. I guess my question is sort of how did you sort of come to this position?

Did you learn about the board and sort of reach out to folks or, you know, how did you come to be appointed to the board? Thank you so much for your question. Actually, the decision to join the board actually came from my working relationship with the pharmacy director at AAMC, Ashley Schaber. We already had a great relationship working with the PHO pharmacy directors over the last maybe 3 or 4 years, and we worked closely together during Typhoon Halong, communicating together about the patients that were being transferred back and forth during the typhoon and sharing the information that could help the patients quickly during that transfer. So, she had mentioned the the appointment during our THO meeting and, you know, I expressed to her that, you know, I've always wanted to serve the State of Alaska, but I wasn't sure in what capacity.

And she, you know, provided me some really great advice. I looked it over and, you know, I thought about it and I researched, you know, the responsibilities of being a director. And I also talked to my Vice President about, you know, making sure that I'm not decreasing my serving as a director while being on the Board of Pharmacy. And, you know, after much deliberation, I said, you know, this is what I truly want to do in serving the state of Alaska. Very good.

I also know from your resume you're a member of the Bethel Pickleball Club, which will give you a lot of support in this building. We've got a burgeoning pickleball community here. Um, yeah, I don't consider myself a member of it, but I support them in their endeavors. Let's see here. I don't see any other— don't see any other questions.

So— Mr. Chair, I think that you only support pickleball when they don't interfere with basketball time in the gym. There certainly is a resource allocation issue there. But thank you, Doctor. Thank you so much for your time.

I know it's— everyone here is very busy, and we thank you for your service out on the YK Delta. So thank you so much, and we will move on to our next appointee.

Let's see here, we don't have— we still have not gotten Ashley Sholey, uh, here, so we'll go next to Crystal Herring, uh, Board of Professional Counselors. I believe this is a reappointment. Ms. Herring, please state your name for the record and begin your testimony.

[FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Hi, good afternoon, Chair and members of the committee. Thank you so much for inviting me here today. For the record, my name is Crystal Herring. I live in Anchorage, Alaska, and I have been in the counseling profession for over 28 years. I have been a licensed professional counselor in the state of Alaska since 2013.

It's actually been an honor to serve on the Board of Professional Counselors since September of 2024. That initial appointment term expired in March of this year, and if confirmed this time, this will be my first full 4-year term serving on the board. I sought to serve on the board because I care deeply about the counseling profession and the communities we serve. I want to contribute to strengthening the practice of counseling by supporting best practices, ensuring high professional standards, and thoughtfully considering regulatory, regulatory updates when they're needed. Thank you so much for your time and consideration, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, uh, Ms. Herring. We have a question from Senator Tobin. Uh, thank you, thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Ms. Herring, for your service.

I do just want to make note, as I have been reading through, uh, some news publications and some additional information, uh, that occurred during the pandemic about a company that you were the co-CEO of. And I'd like to give you an opportunity to just speak about what seems to be a concern that I have around some of the things that you mentioned in your opening remarks around the ethics and high standards of professional practice. There seemed to be some concern about particularly the company that you were the co-CEO of and how it operated a COVID treatment center at the Golden Lion Hotel and some of the concerns around the waiving of utilities and permit fees and rents on that particular facility while also charging patients significant premium prices. So I'd like to give you an opportunity to kind of speak to that and speak to how lessons that you learned or things that you realized during that moment has— how you might have changed and can continue to really uphold the professional practice of counseling, which does have extremely high standards.

Um, yes, through the Chair, thank you, Senator Tobin. Obviously, I was not expecting a question like this in regards to a chair appointment, but I definitely understand. Um, it has been a while since that time. Um, your question specifically, I just want to clarify, was in relation to the fact that we bill individuals and we bill their insurance for the monoclonal antibody treatment. Am I correct on that?

Yes. Thank you, uh, for asking around clarity. Yes, that is, uh, a key piece of the, the stories that we're produced about your particular company, uh, the charging, uh, premium prices to patients while receiving, uh, a waiver of fees, uh, the use of public dollars to provide these services that were much needed during the pandemic.

Absolutely. So I would hate to overstep on the assembly and the mayor at the time. I personally was not involved in the discussions of using the location, um, that was offered. We had approached the city office and let them know that we did have access to monoclonal antibodies and the ability because of our medics and EMTs, and we also had ambulances. And prior to being allowed to use the space, we were providing these services in the community via our ambulance where we would go to people's homes and provide that service to them.

This was a way for us to serve the community on a much larger scale. Um, I was not involved in the politics about the permission given for using, um, that hotel space. Um, prior to that, in the ambulance services that we were doing, and then we had actually rented a warehouse on our own, completely separate from the city. And we're also trying to scale up the service to the community because the feedback that we were getting in the community was that the free clinic was not having enough opportunity or enough appointments to meet the need in the community. And we purchased on our own side the medical supplies and all of that that we were actively servicing the community previous to the Golden Lion Hotel being offered as a space.

And in those times, we were already— I apologize for the ums, but we were already billing insurance, taking private payments for those services prior to ever moving into and upscaling the service in the Golden Lion. Additionally, when people called us and when they made appointments,.

That documentation was very clear that we were not a part of the free service that was being offered by the state, that we were a private company that had been allowed to do it in this larger space so we could serve more community members. But it was still a private company that was doing that, and the fee disclosure, the insurance, um, disclosure that we would be billing their insurance, all of that was signed with the patient before they came in for those appointments. I'm not sure if that answers exactly what you're asking, but I know you mentioned ethics, and ethically, and according to best practices, we were absolutely disclosing the fee structure, and we were disclosing the billing process to the best of our ability. Now, obviously, we were working with some very sick individuals because COVID kind of did a number on all of us, and sometimes when you're in active illnesses, may be hard to understand that until after the fact, but all of that was absolutely disclosed before we ever provided services. Um, I think we have a follow-up from Senator Tobin.

Thank you, thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Ms. Herring, for that response. I, I do just want to follow up, and, uh, you mentioned that you were navigating, uh, people with complex medical needs. They were in vulnerable positions, they were in mental health distress, and under the the Board of Professional Counselors, you are going to be responsible for helping counselors who are dealing with those same populations, and I just would like you to expound on what you have learned from this experience, as I think even in your remarks talking about how the disclosures for fees and insurance may not have met the needs of the population you're serving, and to continue providing oversight over this much-needed and very important professional practice. I need confidence that you have learned a lesson and that you're going to be prepared to, to really uplift the high standards and ethical practice of counseling, particularly for vulnerable and very vulnerable community members.

Absolutely. Thank you. And through the chair, um, I appreciate the question for sure. I believe that a lot of lessons were absolutely learned through the process of that. I mean, we, none of us knew the impact that COVID was gonna have on our community or the world.

And we were attempting, I think everybody that was in the profession of trying to provide health services during that pandemic and to the individuals that were affected by it, were scrambling to make sure that we were approaching best practice and the highest ethical standards.

The best we could do was to disclose that. And if you're asking, like, the lessons that I've learned and how that's going to be approached from the Board of Professional Counselors is a lot of that is already baked into our statutes and our regulations that our board is there to uphold. And by focusing on the statutes and the regulations and the ethical standards of our board, we are able to ensure that professional counselors are disclosing all of the information that needs to be out there for our community members so that they also, if they feel that there's an issue, they also know how to contact us and make complaints if necessary. Did that answer your question? I'm not— I feel like I might have rabbit trailed just a little bit.

I apologize for that, Senator Tobin. Um, uh, thank you, uh, Ms. Herring. I think we'll— I have, I have a question. I think, um, Senator Tobin will perhaps ask another, but I, I, I have a question.

So, you know, this is a— I believe— actually, I know this board has investigatory powers, and certainly, um, the judgment of the board members is very much important, very much needed. And, um, it happens to be that I was on the Anchorage Assembly when all of that with COVID was going on, and I remember that you wrote a fairly glowing recommendation for then Health Director Joe Gerace and later came out that he was not someone that should be employed by the Municipality of Anchorage. And so I'm wondering if you learned anything from that experience as well.

Yes, sir. Thank you, Chair Dunbar. And I did. I learned to make sure to check information. That you are given by outside sources and verify.

I guess there's kind of that term trust but verify, and I have absolutely learned that lesson through not just that situation but many situations over the years of running various businesses and working at various professions or jobs across my profession is that Sometimes when information is presented to us, we have to verify those facts for ourselves rather than accept the information that's given without any research.

Thank you, uh, Ms. Herring. And I'll say that I learned something of that lesson myself at the time.

Is there any follow-up questions for Ms. Herring? We have one from Senator Giesel. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ms.

Herring, I see on your resume that you continue as the chief executive officer of WEKA LLC, the same organization that was working out of the Golden Lion. But it appears that it is a security agency specializing in secure transport, um, and yet you were giving infusions during COVID Could you clarify what the role of this business is?

Absolutely. Through the chair to Senator Diesel, thank you so much for that question. Um, WECA is our umbrella company, and it was originally started by myself and my husband to provide mental health transport for the State of Alaska. At the time, it was the Department of Behavioral Health when we started back in 2011. It is a part of the Detention Evaluation Treatment Program, Title 47.

So with my husband's background in Alaska State Defense Force, DOC, police, and my background in counseling and my history of experience having to set up transports for mental health patients through various organizations that I worked for, we recognized that there was a need for those services with the State of Alaska. And so we set up the business to be able to provide that service to the state. And we've been doing that since 2011. That is the primary over, um, like the umbrella of our company. And since then it has absolutely grown in various different directions.

Um, one of those was on the medical side of the house. Um, in 2020, we hired an individual, um, who was a paramedic. We actually hired him to come on and be the operations person, um, because we had a, wealth of experience in leading teams, um, and we hired him for the security side of the house. Um, and he was the one that approached us when COVID started getting worse towards the end of 2020. Um, he's the one that approached us and let us know that he had connections, um, that he could make within the medical community because that's definitely not the expertise of either myself or my husband.

And so we let him take charge on that front, and he is the one that opened up and got licensing for us to be able to start providing initially those, those COVID antibody treatments. Eventually, as things started backing off of that, he was able to get us onto the vaccine list, so we were able to provide that to the community as well. Doing the COVID testing, the rapid testing that was in great need back then as well. Um, after COVID, um, and the need for those services decreased, we had all of the equipment, we had medics that he had hired, we had the licensing, we had the medical direction. Um, and so we decided to take the ambulances that we had previously been using to provide those monoclonal antibody treatments to people in their homes and we added ourselves into the rotation of providing, um, inter-facility transport via ambulance.

So we don't do emergency 911 stuff, but we try to fill in the gaps in the community predominantly now out in the Valley, um, for picking.

Patients that need to go to various doctor's appointments but can't make it there on their own. Or we take patients from the hospital and we return them to home. We just try to fill in a community gap for that inter-facility medical transport.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Senator Giesel. Do we have— oh, Senator Tobin. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, Ms. Herring, I just want to make sure that I I'm understanding the scope of your business today, especially the inter-facility transport. Do you engage in any of the Crisis Now services or in any of the behavioral health support that is provided between facilities? Are you using the, as you mentioned, the transport originally was established under mental health transport.

Is that also still a component of your business?

Thank you. Through the chair, um, to Senator Tobin. Yes, um, we do still do the mental health transport. That is the predominant part of our business at WECA, is doing the Title 47 mental health transport, where we pick them up in the community wherever they're at, and we take them to where the state of Alaska has designated they need to go for evaluation and treatment. Um, we have not been engaged with the The Crisis Now system that you mentioned, I, I have heard about that, but it is not a part of the services that we provide, and I don't think we do that either on the medical side or on the security, the secure transport side with the Title 47.

Yes, follow-up, Senator Tobin. Thank you, thank you, Miss Herring. And may I ask, um, under the Board of Professional Counselors, uh, do you also work within the scope or the licensure of folks who engage engage in those mental health transports? So the service members, the aides that work with the patients that are in your transport vehicles.

I apologize to the chair, um, some of that broke up on my cell phone. I'm so sorry. May I ask you to repeat that? I'm most happy to. So within the mental health transport, I'm assuming that there are aides or there are professionals who are there to receive the patient.

Under the Board of Professional Counselors, do you have oversight of the folks who might be doing some of that work? Oh, I see. Oh, I see. Oh, I see. Oh, I see.

Oh, I see. Through the chair. I understand now. Thank you so much. I can't actually answer that with 100% certainty.

I imagine that some of the individuals that we interact with, well, it would be the staff that interact with the security transport officers. They would be interacting with nurses, doctors, possibly mental health professionals that serve at the various facilities, like the different hospitals in our state that may have a mental health patient that's being currently held for Title 47. And then when we drop off at the various locations, whether that is Jeno Bartlett, API, Matsue, or Fairbanks. Our staff again would be interacting with the facility staff to do exchange of custody and give any updates about any issues that might have come up on the, um, transport. But I believe the question is more specifically, does the Board of Professional Counselors have oversight of the individuals taking custody of the patient for doing those Title 47s.

And I cannot say that with clarity because not all of those positions are required to be licensed. And in fact, I would say, just based on my own personal time when I worked in facilities, I was not licensed when I was employed. You have my resume. So when I was employed at Providence in Alaska, or Providence in the lower 48, for Denali Family Services, none of those positions, even though I was a counselor, was not a licensed counselor.

Um, so most of those individuals would probably not require a licensure through the Board of Professional Counselors in order to do the services that they're providing.

Okay.

Um, Sarah Tobin, we don't have follow-ups. Okay, I think that is all, and folks can of course always follow up via email. Thank you, Miss Herring, and yeah, thank you for your time today. We will move on to our next appointee, Miss Stacia, Stacia, Stacia, I think, Miller, Board of Certified Direct Entry Midwives. I apologize, Miss Miller, I know we've spoken before, but please state your name for the record and begin your testimony.

All right, um, good afternoon. My name is Stacia Miller, and I'm a board member pending legislative confirmation to the Board of Certified Direct Entry Midwives. I was born and raised in Fairbanks, Alaska, and I currently reside in Valdez. I'm a fourth-generation Alaskan, and my grandfather served as a member of the Alaska House of Representatives during the second and third Alaska state legislators. In recognition of his public service, it is especially meaningful for me to be here today.

I am a mother of 3 children, all of whom received midwifery care, and those experiences greatly shaped my respect for the profession. I work full-time as an operations supervisor for the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company in oil spill prevention and response. While my professional background does not directly align with midwifery, I bring a strong commitment to safety, accountability, and professional standards. I have also experienced the loss of my infant son due to a hospital accident, and because of this, I am deeply committed to ensuring that licensure standards reflect the training, credentials, and safeguards necessary for midwives to practice safely and effectively. Thank you for your time and consideration today.

Thank you, Ms. Miller. We have a question from Senator Giesel. Hi, Ms. Miller. Thanks for applying for this. Did you, did you apply for this position?

I did, yeah. Okay, great. Um, follow-up? Yes. Um, Ms. Miller, have you served on the board before?

You know, I was wondering that because I came in before the last, um, was it called a session? And, um, just the tail end of it. I think it was the last month. So I— maybe I'm— maybe I have. I don't know if that qualifies for that.

I'm sorry, I'm still so new, I'm figuring it all out. Sure, I understand. I see your appointment date being March 1st, 2026, and that's why I asked. You sounded very informed about the role, and so it sounded like you may have served before. So perhaps you were completing someone's previous term that had not finished out yet.

Thank you for your answer. Thank you, Senator Giesel. So thank you, Ms. Miller. So I'm looking here, and I unfortunately don't have the statute in front of me, Um, are you serving in a public seat then? Um, I am, that's correct.

Very good. Um, and, uh, I'm curious about this Fat Mermaid restaurant. Where is that? It's in, uh, that was years ago. That was, um, I don't know, oh, 18 years ago maybe.

I'm trying to do some math. Uh, there's the restaurant in town that I worked at. Yeah, and then from there I I started working for Alyeska Pipeline. Very good. And I've been doing oil spill response since then.

But yeah, it's a great restaurant if you make it over to Valdez. Yeah, well, you know, I grew up in Cordova. I spent a lot of time going through Valdez, but perhaps it predated the Fat Mermaid, or perhaps my parents never took me there. I do remember the Foo Kung Chinese restaurant. I don't know if that is still in existence.

Mr. Chairman? Yes, go ahead. It is. It is. I had the opportunity to go to the Fat Mermaid this summer while my father was inducted as the Grand President for the Pioneers of Alaska, and it was quite delightful.

Oh, good. Well, I appreciate the name. Well, very good. I guess I will ask— I asked this to a prior appointee, Ms. Miller, on a different board. I guess you've just started on the board, but what do you see as sort of the controversies or the primary issues that are coming before the board?

And if you were aware of the board before you were appointed, Could you give us sort of your thoughts about what's going to consume the Board's time going forward?

Well, right now we're working on kind of redlining the regulations that we're working with. And it's interesting to try to condense that down and what that looks like. So I don't know if it's difficult. I would say it's more interesting. So I don't know, at this stage in my, um, my role, I'm just trying to learn.

So I haven't really seen anything too difficult, but, but just interesting. Very good. Other questions? I don't see any. Thank you very much for your, your time, Ms. Miller.

Thank you for being willing to serve on the board. And again, if you have anything you'd like to send us, please do so via email. Wonderful, thank you, thank you. Next up, let me double check here.

Next up we have, uh, Mr. Edward Barrington to the board of.

Chiropractic examiners. Mr. Barrington, could you please state your name for the record and begin your testimony? My name is— they had me muted, I apologize. My name is Dr. Edward Don Barrington.

Go ahead. And I'm calling from Anchorage today.

We can hear—. You're a little bit quiet, Dr. Barrington, if you could maybe increase your volume just a little bit. And, uh, I'll try to speak a little bit louder. I did try the volume on the phone, but, uh, I'm not sure what it's doing. Okay, can you hear me better now?

A little bit. Um, so yeah, please begin your testimony.

So, um, uh, okay, uh, I'm sorry. It's been a bit hectic around here today at the office, but I was born and raised in Juneau. I'm a 1950s model, so I know where some of the bodies are buried down there.

My family moved to Anchorage right after the earthquake in '64. I went to Ora D. Clark Junior High, East High School, Alaska Methodist University, and University of Alaska. I received a diplomate chiropractic degree in Davenport, Iowa at DePauw College in 1983, and I've been practicing in Anchorage since that time.

I served on the Board of Examiners once before. I was filling in for a member that had left state, so I didn't get quite the full tenure in before, and I believe it's been probably 8 years since I served on, on the board until this time.

Very good. Looking through your CV here, a lot of continuing education, it appears.

You're on the Onsite Water and Wastewater Technical Review Board. Thank you for your service there, uh, to the people of Anchorage. Um, I'll ask the question I've asked other folks. Um, what do you see as sort of the primary policy issues or perhaps controversies that are facing this board going forward? Well, the Board of Examiners primarily is, uh, there to make sure qualifications are, uh, for chiropractors practicing in the state are are current, so to look after the public safety in this matter.

We do some investigations through the department. We're subject to making decisions on cases that they may pass through to us. I serve also on the board for the Alaska Chiropractic Society, and like other professional boards in the states, we have been looking at a degree of scope issues to keep current with modernization of our profession. I know the physical— or, sorry, physician's assistants and physical therapists are doing the same. I do not see the Board of Examiners, however, in an active role in that.

I believe that is done or should be done through the more public entities and sent to the board for advice. Other than that, I don't— I'm sorry, we were involved in AO360 as other boards were this past year, and I want to thank the powers that be behind that for assistance in helping us get through that process.

Very good. Any other questions? I don't see any. Uh, thank you, Dr. Sanders, for your, uh, for your testimony. I'm sorry, I'm looking at— I was looking at the wrong one.

Dr. Barrington, apologies.

Thank you. Um, next up we have Mr. Walter Campbell. Also for the Board of Chiropractic Examiners, Mr. Campbell, please put yourself on the record and begin your testimony.

Absolutely. Can you hear me okay? Yep, loud and clear. Thank you.

Good afternoon, members of the committee. My name is Dr. Walter Campbell. I'm a lifelong Alaskan, born in Fairbanks and raised in Barrow. However, the past 22 years or so I've lived in Palmer. I'm very blessed to have worked with and partnered with a remarkable group of people over my 21 years in practice, and as such, I've been able to establish a network of chiropractic, PT, and medical clinics across the state, including in rural Alaska.

I feel these experiences, both in the multidisciplinary setting and in the many rural locations that I've lived and worked in, bring a great deal of perspective to my duties as a board member. In addition to being a chiropractor, I'm also a United States Marine. As much as I look to that time in my life as a service to the nation, I look at my time on the board as a service to the people of Alaska, one I've been very honored to do in the past, and with your approval, one I'll be honored to do again.

Uh, very good. Um, so thank you for being here, uh, Dr. Campbell. I, I noticed that you had, um, served on this board from 2010 to 2018, but then there was a little bit of a gap, and then you started again in 2022 to present. Um, I, I don't know, is there a, is there a term limit, or was there some other reason you decided to step off the board in 2018? Yeah, there's a mandatory, um, 4-year— after 2 consecutive terms, you have to step off for 4.

Very good. Um, and you, uh You could not resist and you went back. Very good. You were the board president as well from 2017 to 2018. Are there questions from my colleagues here?

So I guess I'll ask, how— you have served since 2010. How have you seen the profession change since then? And how have the sort of issues or perhaps have challenges changed since then with regards to this board or with regards to chiropractic more generally? Well, you know, there have been differences because I think I've served under 3 different governors. So there's always a little bit of differences in the administration's focus that sort of filters its way down through the boards.

Like Ed was just speaking to with the latest project we were working on in streamlining regulations. I think just like he said, and I don't think I could give a better answer than him, there's scope of practice issues that will constantly raise their head. And that's partly due to the nature of chiropractic being more of a holistic profession. And so, with the exception of a few red lines— drugs and surgery— it's a very broad field. And the statutes are sort of written with that breadth and vagary in mind.

And so, it falls on the board a lot of times to interpret, you know, exactly what falls within the scope. And that's why I think it's good to have, you know, seasoned chiropractors on there with the wealth of experience in addition to the public members so that reason and accountability can be brought to those sorts of complex issues. Very good. Any questions for me? Senator Giesel.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What are the number of chiropractic visits that are allowed under the employee health benefits these days? [Speaker:DR. BRYAN] It varies from plan to plan, but I would say typically it's between 12 and 20. And then sometimes there are plans that are limited based on the care, and it's not always delineated by chiropractic because some of the modalities we use fall under physical therapy. So, on those sorts of cases, it's sort of dependent upon whether it's a chiropractic visit or whether they're getting other modalities.

Follow-up, Senator Giesel? No, thank you, Mr. Sherman. I guess I, as a layperson who doesn't practice billing, I have to say I didn't fully understand that response.

Dr. Campbell, can you clarify how you distinguish what falls within your purview and what falls under physical therapy?

Well, with the modality, I mean, the difference in statute is essentially how you can represent yourself as a professional. So chiropractic adjustments are specific and they have a specific code. Physical therapy modalities are used by many professions and they would just be— I mean, I would classify them as physical therapy, but they could be physiotherapy. In fact, some of this stuff gets into almost more of a marketing issue than technically what's happening, because the scope of chiropractic includes all of those modalities. But there are, uh, in other words, you can't represent yourself as doing physical therapy even though you're doing modalities that physical therapists would do, and it's totally legal to do it under statutes.

You have to be careful to say something other than. So you can say rehab exercises or therapeutic exercises, but you.

Functionally, I can instruct the patient on exercises. I can use different physiotherapy modalities the same way that a physical therapist could. And I'm also a portal of entry. So I don't necessarily need to have a recommendation from another provider to treat those patients. And this is reflective of the background and the training of chiropractors who are 4 years post-grad.

Very good. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? I don't see any.

Uh, thank you for your time today, Dr. Campbell. Absolutely. Thank you. Next up, we have Dr. Kathleen Rice, Board of Examiners in Optometry. Dr. Rice, please state your name for the record and begin your testimony.

Dr. Rice, are you there? Oh, you know, I think we— she might not be here. We will go now to, uh, Dr. Travis Perkins, um, also the Board of Dental Examiners. Dr. Perkins, please state your name for the record and begin your testimony.

Through the chair, can you hear me okay? Yes, we can. Thank you. [Speaker:TRAVIS_PERKINS] Hi, my name is Dr. Travis Perkins. I've been a dentist for about 25 years.

I've worked in Alaska since 2018. I started in Kodiak, Alaska for a Native corporation visiting all the Native villages. In 2021, I moved to Soldotna where I am now. Apparently last year about this time, I applied for the position for the board. Obviously, things have worked out.

Either condolences or congratulations are in order, I guess. But just interested in giving back, helping the profession, and glad to be here. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Perkins. Just quickly reading through your, your resume here.

So I apologize, I missed, when did you first come to Alaska? 2018. 2018, Okay. And you were in private practice in Soldotna or that was later?

Yes, that's where I currently am. Oh, that's where you're currently, okay, very good. And I asked this to several other people but, what do you see as the primary challenges facing the board going forward?

I think there are a lot of changes. I think there are a lot of challenges in Alaska, especially for the limited number of tidemans that we're seeing. I think there are a lot of challenges in the, you know, with the number of dentists we have and some of the issues that we're facing rurally. So, you know, I think just the sheer number of dentists and healthcare providers in the dental field in general are probably our biggest challenges.

Very good. Do we have any other questions? I don't see any. Okay, thank you, Dr. Perkins, for joining us today. Thanks for your time.

Appreciate it, you guys. And that brings us to the end of folks that are online. There were two other people scheduled. We'll try to get them rescheduled. Sometimes there are wires that get crossed.

Um, let me return to my script here. Our next, uh, our next meeting will be— oh, actually, we need to move on to public testimony. So we're going to open public testimony on any of the folks that were heard from today. I'm gonna open public testimony. Is there anyone in the room who would like to testify on any of the folks that we heard from today?

Seeing none and seeing no one online, I'm going to close public testimony with regards to the people we heard from today.

In accordance with AS 39.05.080, The Senate Health and Social Services Committee has reviewed and recommends the following list of appointees be forwarded to a joint session for consideration. Ms. Stacia Miller, Board of Certified Direct Entry Midwives. Dr. Edward Barrington, Board of Chiropractic Examiners. Dr. Walter Campbell, Board of Chiropractic Examiners. Dr. Travix Perkins, Board of Dental Examiners.

Mr. Charles Rudstrom, Board of Examiners in Optometry. Dr. Rebecca Balmes, Board of Pharmacies; Dr. Lillian Akpolake, apologies, Board of Pharmacy; Ms. Crystal Herring, Board of Professional Counselors; and Mr. Michael Sanders, Board of Dental Examiners. As a reminder, signing the committee report does not reflect individual members' approval or disapproval of the nomination. If members would please stay after to sign the paperwork.

The next meeting of the Senate Health and Social Services Committee will be held on Tuesday, April 21st, We plan to hear a second round of confirmation hearings for boards and commissions. Thank you, everyone, for a productive hearing. The time is 4:30, and this meeting is adjourned.