Jim Simon

PhD, Anthropology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1998
MA, Anthropology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1991
BA, General Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University, 1989

Dr. Simon has 30+ years of experience working as an applied anthropologist throughout Alaska and the Russian Far East. From 2017 until joining AITRC full-time in May 2025, Jim worked as an independent consultant for a number of inter-tribal resource commissions and Alaska Native Organizations, including AITRC, Tanana Chiefs Conference, Yukon River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, and Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. As a consultant, he mentored and supported staff regarding state and federal fish and wildlife regulatory systems, performed technical analysis, contributed to formal communications and government-to-government tribal consultations, advised organizational and tribal leaders, and assisted in developing inter-tribal fish and wildlife stewardship capacities to promote tribal hunting and fishing rights in Alaska.

Prior to consulting, Dr. Simon served 14 years as the regional program manager for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division of Subsistence overseeing the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim regions. Jim managed subsistence research, policy, and regulatory management and provided technical support in implementing the state subsistence law at Alaska Board of Game and Alaska Board of Fisheries meetings, including many meetings regarding subsistence moose and caribou hunting in the Ahtna Territory due to his life-long family history in the Copper Basin and upper Matanuska and Susitna rivers. Jim also served on various committees of the Alaska Migratory Co-Management Council (2003-2007, 2018-present) and the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim Sustainable Salmon Initiative Steering Committee, where he served as Vice-Chairman (2003-2010, 2011-2017) and was a strong advocate for tribal capacity building and state and federal co-management with Alaska Tribes.

Prior to work for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Dr. Simon worked as an applied anthropologist for the Tanana Chiefs Conference in natural resources, cultural resources, environmental management, and government-to-government tribal capacity building and facilitation with federal agencies and TCC Member Tribes (1999-2002). Throughout the 1990s, Jim worked on various cultural resource management and heritage documentation and preservation projects with the Kodiak Area Native Association, Bering Straits Foundation, Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation, and Northern Land Use Research.

 

Dr. Simon lives and works on the indigenous lands of the Atnahwt’aene in the Copper River basin and the Salcheege Dena’ of the middle Tanana River. He is an Affiliate Professor in the University of Alaska Fairbanks‘s Department of Tribal Governance where he periodically teaches tribal capacity building workshops on understanding and engaging the Alaska fish and wildlife regulatory programs to influence regulatory decision-making and to promote Indigenous stewardship of Alaska’s lands, waters, fish, wildlife, and plants.