Alaskan named to Biden post advising on Alaska issues

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A former Obama Administration official has been named to a top post in the Biden Administration, where she will shape policy for Alaska.

Raina Thiele is the new senior advisor for Alaska affairs and strategic priorities in the Department of Interior. This is the post that had been held by Steve Wackowski under the Trump Administration. Former State Sen. Kim Elton, a Juneau Democrat, had held the position during the Obama White House years.

Under the Biden Administration, the Interior Department has returned to the practice of locking up land in Alaska, a marked change from the Trump era.

Thiele served as associate director of intergovernmental affairs in the Obama-Biden White House and at the Office of Management and Budget, where she bounced around to various portfolios relating to energy and international issues. When working for President Barack Obama, she coordinated his trip to Alaska in 2015.

Thiele was born and raised in Alaska and her family hails from Pedro Bay village on Lake Iliamna in the Bristol Bay region and Alexander Creek near Mount Susitna.

She is Dena’ina Athabascan and Yup’ik and is an enrolled member of Pedro Bay village. Thiele received her Master in Public Policy degree from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and her Bachelors degree from Yale College. She has been a consultant with her own company, Thiele Strategies, which engages in outreach & engagement strategy, organizational and process streamlining, campaigns, project management, advocacy, and other services.

21 COMMENTS

  1. Sounds like another idiot suffering from intellectual obesity. After all, harvard & yale spew nothing but irrational talking heads of knowitalism.

  2. Wow, Rhonda you may not agree with this lady but to call her a idiot is below the belt. If you check which you may not be smart enough to do, but I believe one of your favorite Fox News talking heads is a Harvard graduate. I find that people who bad mouth others with higher levels of education then themselves are just covering up for their lack of education. Just sad and pathic.

  3. If she was in the Obama administration and is a democrat, I don’t expect much from her. She’ll do as told not much else.

  4. @Rhonda, how dare ‘they’ get a better education than most people. The audacity of them! Let’s belittle ‘them’ until we feel superior. After all, those Ivy League Schools are the easiest to get into.

  5. Let’s just call her what she is. A Communist. That seems to be the leftist party agenda these days; along with a dash of fascism by their “woke” corporate donors. Just another color revolution in the making. Nothing to see here America. Just continue to consume, conform, obey and take a knee.

  6. Democrat Administration’s apparently seek out ” advisors” who reflect their anti- development model. Isn’t this called an Echo Chamber?

  7. What catches my eye on Ms Thiele is her company, Thiele Strategies. The final sentence of this article explains what she does but I have no idea what she does. I think they’re fancy words for community organizer. I imagine all of her funding comes from grants, endowments, pledges, donations, and other various means. She is a member of the DC swamp no doubt about it. Killing Alaska’s economy will cost her nothing, she’ll get “infrastructure” money.

  8. Harborguy: I can’t prove that Thiele is an idiot, I just know it to be true … by association. She may have the motivation of a saint, but she was hand-picked for the post. At best she’s probably a useful errand girl. At worst, she’s been co-opted, beyond redemption.
    I would want to be more generous. She’s so kitten cute and innocent looking. However, real world politics says “no way.” The stakes are just too high.

  9. “Advisor for Alaska Affairs” (AAA). Shouldn’t Alaskans have some say in filling this post?

  10. I’ve lived and worked all over Alaska most of my life, which is getting up there in years. I’ve taken care of myself and my family for many years, and I don’t need to be “advised” by any kid, especially a leftover from the failed Obama Administration.

  11. If your monthly supplies are tossed out the door of a passing cargo plane, you might be an Alaskan.
    If your family doctor is also your dog team’s veterinarian, you might be an Alaskan.
    If you know what a #11 animal trap, and a #11 muzzle loader primer is, you might be an Alaskan.
    If you read your favorite books by the glow of the Northern Lights, you might be an Alaskan.
    If your refrigerator is a tunnel into the permafrost, you might be an Alaskan.
    If your kids come inside for some lard, so they can keep playing outside, you might be an Alaskan.
    If your “phone” is a CB radio, you might be an Alaskan.
    If you do your laundry in a 55 gallon drum, you might be an Alaskan.
    If your bathroom is a 5 gallon honey-bucket, you might be an Alaskan.

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