Team | Environmental Planning | Solstice Alaska Consulting

Our Team

Headquartered in midtown Anchorage, we provide environmental planning services throughout Alaska. Our specializations include National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documentation and assessments, environmental permitting, marine environment, and community and public involvement.

Robin Reich

Robin, President of SolsticeAK, has more than 20 years of experience in environmental studies, documentation, and permitting. Her varied background and knowledge enable her to effectively manage the writing of environmental documents involving multiple disciplines, stakeholders, and issues. Robin’s projects often require that she facilitate conversations between agencies, engineers, and clients to mitigate for potential impacts to the environment. She works closely with planners, scientists, and engineers to ensure that projects meet public and agency approval. Having grown up in Alaska and having spent her entire professional career helping public and private clients obtain regulatory approvals, Robin is well aware of the issues and challenges surrounding Alaskan projects. With experience in marine assessments and wetlands, water quality, and fisheries field studies, (and with a background that includes growing up commercial fishing in rural Alaska), Robin has a thorough understanding of issues that arise during environmental documentation and permitting.

Carrie Connaker

Carrie’s experience at SolsticeAK includes obtaining environmental permits, preparing grant applications, coordinating public involvement meetings, and writing environmental documents for energy, transportation, and infrastructure projects in Alaska. For SolsticeAK, she has prepared Categorical Exclusions and Environmental Assessments to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act, involving agency consultations, drafting project and alternative descriptions, and summarizing existing environmental conditions, impacts, and mitigation. She is familiar with the requirements of the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act and has worked in team settings to write Biological Assessments, Incidental Harassement Authorizations, and Marine Mammal Monitoring Plans. Her professional experience also includes over 12 years of work as a clinical embryologist for a fertility clinic in the Seattle area, where she was proficient with high-complexity lab processes as well as establishing connections with the clinic’s patient base. Carrie’s science-based background includes a B.A. in Biochemistry from Whitman College and a M.S. in Clinical Embryology and Andrology from Eastern Virginia Medical School. Carrie has lived and worked in Alaska for most of her life.

Emma Kimball

Emma’s experience at Solstice includes preparing environmental documents for residential developments and community infrastructure projects. She moved to Alaska in 2020 to work as a research assistant and pursue a graduate degree. As a research assistant Emma worked on a project focused on environmental change in Southcentral Alaska and its impacts on Alaska’s commercial salmon fisheries and related institutions. Emma has a B.A. in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic where she studied marine science and fisheries, and Master of Public Policy from the University of Alaska Anchorage. Her other experience ranges from commercial salmon fishing in Alaska and working on mariculture in Maine, to social science research on small-scale fisheries in Mexico and assisting with shark research in the Bahamas.

Sharon Boyette

Sharon has lived and worked in Bethel and Anchorage, Alaska since 1975. Her work for the Lower Kuskokwim School District (LKSD) and for the Aleutians East Borough has given her an understanding of the issues and concerns faced by rural Alaskan communities. As the grants administrator for LKSD, she planned, wrote, implemented and evaluated state and federal grant programs for 26 village schools. In several capacities and, ultimately, as the Borough Administrator, Sharon worked for the Aleutians East Borough for 20 years. Her expertise is in planning and managing large capital projects, writing and administering grant programs and working with municipalities and non-profit organizations to achieve their goals.

Natalie Kiley-Bergen

Natalie has been working in environmental consulting and planning since 2019 and has experience writing environmental documents and conducting fieldwork throughout various parts of Alaska. At SolsticeAK, she has prepared grant applications for energy infrastructure projects and prepared environmental reports to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, and Marine Mammal Protection Act, in addition to conducting marine mammal monitoring. Natalie has a B.S. in Biology and B.A. in History from Bowdoin College, a background in environmental education, and fieldwork experience from conducting coastal ecology research in Zanzibar, Tanzania and supporting amphibian conservation in Madagascar. She moved to Alaska in 2019 after teaching Science and English at a secondary school in Malaysia on a Fulbright Grant.

Kennedy Kruchoski

Kennedy has been working with public, non-profit, and private sector groups on environmental and sustainability planning and project development since 2017. She has prepared grant applications, written environmental documents, and performed fieldwork including marine mammal monitoring for projects throughout Alaska. She has worked to ensure that National Environmental Policy Act requirements are met, and that required local, state, and federal permits and authorizations are acquired for a variety of projects. Before joining the SolsticeAK team in 2020, her professional experience included Sustainability program management for the City of Minneapolis, data analysis for hydrology, transportation planning projects, and electric vehicle infrastructure development. Through her studies at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN, she gained experience in environmental justice, environmental policy, and GIS. Born and raised in Alaska, Kennedy returned to Anchorage after studying and working in Minneapolis/St. Paul for 7 years.

Kaelan Dickinson

Kaelan, a born and raised Alaskan, joined the Solstice Alaska Consulting team in 2023. Her experience ranges from teaching second grade as a Teach for America Corps member in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to working for the Alaskan delegation in the United States Senate. Kaelan has a B.A. in Law and Society from the University of California Santa Barbara. As a grant writer, her experience at Solstice includes writing and preparing grant applications for municipalities, Alaska Native villages, and Alaska Native corporations.

It is a Solstice Alaska Consulting, Inc. policy to afford equal employment opportunity to all qualified individuals without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, citizenship, age, gender, physical or mental disability/handicap, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other basis prohibited by local, state or federal law.