Staff

Roger Schmidt, Executive Director

Roger Schmidt has been the Executive Director of Sitka Fine Arts Camp (Alaska Arts Southeast, Inc.) since 2000. He grew up in Sitka and attended the Sitka Fine Arts Camp as a student from 1980-1984. The Fine Arts have been a central part of Roger's life. He graduated from Oberlin College and Conservatory with degrees in philosophy and trombone performance with additional music studies at the Aspen Music Festival, Pierre Monteux School and internationally in London and at the Bruckner Conservatory in Austria. He has also studied art and culture for a semester in London and for a year in Austria. As a musician he has worked in the San Francisco Bay area as well as toured throughout Alaska and other parts of the United States. Roger is also an avid traveler and adventurer. His trips have included a 3-month solo kayak trip from Vancouver B.C. to Sitka, Alaska, a kayak crossing of the Bering Strait, a Patagonia Ice-Cap ski crossing, and a year-long sailing trip from Siberia to Uruguay. He is the 2004 recipient of the Governor’s Award for Arts Education and in 2007, under his direction, the Camp received the Coming Up Taller Award at the White House.

Kenley Jackson, Program Manager

Kenley Jackson has been working at the Sitka Fine Arts Camp since the Fall of 2008. She grew up in West Virginia and earned a B.A. in Biology from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. She has dabbled in many visual art forms and especially enjoys printmaking. Her Art Book called "Once Upon a Time I Hated Birds" has been featured in special exhibits in Minnesota and Iowa. When not working for fine arts camp, she enjoys exploring the wilds of Sitka and cooking.

Cassi Olson, Development Coordinator

Cassi Olson started working for the Sitka Fine Arts Camp during the summer of 2010 and fell for the charms of Sitka.Cassi is from Minnesota, where she grew up and went to school. She received a B.A. in Chemistry from Carleton College, and continues expanding her own arts education in drawing and music.