Joining the long list of Biden officials touring Alaska this month was the chief executive officer of AmeriCorps, Michael Smith, who just came off of a week-long tour.
Smith runs the federal volunteer service that is the successor to Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA). His visit to Alaska included Scammon Bay, Bethel, Fairbanks, and Anchorage.
Smith was confirmed by the Senate to run AmeriCorps in December, 2021. Prior to the appointment by President Joe Biden, he was the director of youth opportunity programs at the Obama Foundation, and executive director of the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, a program of former President Barack Obama, who appointed him. He was special assistant to Obama for My Brother’s Keeper in the White House, where he served in the Obama Administration for two years and four months. He is a graduate of Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia.
Although AmeriCorps is called volunteer work, the average salary for “volunteers” in Alaska is $115,271 annually as of July 25, 2023. The annual range for Alaska falls between $99,205 and $134,853.
Dozens of federal officials from the Biden Administration have spread across the state this month in a full-court press to push the Biden agenda.
