Ms. Cunning has been conducting public and agency-specific ANILCA trainings for over 30 years, including contracts with Institute of the North for Department of the Interior University, US Forest Service, National Park Service, State of Alaska, and various nonprofit organizations. Ms. Cunning grew up in Alaska and has a BS degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. After ten years with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, she was appointed in 1981 to establish the State of Alaska’s “ANILCA team” of state agencies’ designees to liaison with federal agencies in the implementation of ANILCA. Ms. Cunning oversaw the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s role in ANILCA for 30 years, served as staff to the Alaska Land Use Council for several years and represented leadership in many federal/state resource matters until retirement in 2010. During this time she served on various national committees of federal and state agencies seeking resolution to federal management issues involving wilderness, fish and wildlife, and waters. She was co-chair of the State’s Interagency Navigable Waters and Access Team for over two decades. Ms. Cunning worked under an intergovernmental personnel agreement with US Fish and Wildlife Service to develop policies and regulations to implement the Refuge Improvement Act of 1997, particularly to recognize the unique provisions of ANILCA for Alaska refuges. She served on a Wilderness management cooperative effort with the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service that developed a national management agreement and initiated joint wilderness training. In 2011, the Governor of Alaska awarded Ms. Cunning the first Conservationist of the Year award for her long dedication to implementation of the special provisions of ANILCA. Since retiring, she works with other federal and state experts to improve ANILCA trainings, provides assistance in locating Congressional intent in the ANILCA legislative history, and volunteers as an advisor in resolution of ANILCA implementation issues.

Mr. Estes has been contributing to the interdisciplinary science, legal, institutional, and public involvement training and implementation of instream flow and water level conservation (IFWLC) since the early 1970s. After Estes’ 2010 retirement from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game as a Fisheries Scientist and Chief of its Statewide Aquatic Resources Coordination Unit, he entered into private IFWLC consultation as principal of Chalk Board Enterprises, LLC. He is a co-founder of the Instream Flow Council and served as one its Directors-at-Large since its formation in 1998. He has authored numerous IFWLC and related publications. He has held several national leadership positions including the development and implementation of the 2006 National Fish Habitat Action Plan (NFHAP). NFHAP was codified as the National Fish Habitat Partnership (NFHP) in 2020 by Title II of PL 116-188. Estes serves on several science and technical committees for professional societies and organizations. Current priorities are providing Alaska based water rights training with an emphasis on IFWLC for governmental, NGO, academic, and private sector clients and developing a global IFWLC Training Center for all water stakeholders. Estes has received several awards for his professional contributions throughout his career and received the 2021 Stanley A. Moberly Award co-sponsored by the American Fisheries Society, NFHP, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric and Administration for his Outstanding Lifetime Achievements and Contributions to Fish Habitat Conservation. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in biology and environmental science from Prescott College, Prescott, Arizona and his master’s degree in environmental science from Washington State University, Pullman, Washington.

Mr. Horn specializes in natural resources law with a heavy focus on ANILCA and related Alaska land issues. As a former deputy under secretary of the Interior in 1981, he was responsible for the Department’s Alaska portfolio. Mr. Horn retained that portfolio and was later confirmed as assistant secretary for Fish, Wildlife & Parks. He directed the implementation of ANILCA in its first eight years, and many of the regulations and policies he helped promulgate then are still in effect. Mr. Horn has extensive expertise in land acquisition and appraisal; wildlife law, including the Endangered Species Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act; national park concessions; Forest Service matters; recreation permits; and other public land and related regulatory matters. Mr. Horn’s experience in complex interstate land transactions includes the largest interstate land exchange ever consummated (the Arizona (Indian School)-Florida (Everglades) Exchange. Mr. Horn has established an active and successful litigation as well as legislative practice. A recognized expert in the field of natural resources law and policy, he has also served as chairman of the U.S./Canada Great Lakes Fishery Commission, and on National Academy of Sciences boards for Environmental Science and Everglades Restoration. In addition, he has a lengthy background in private conservation serving on the board of directors for the Bonefish & Tarpon, Trout Unlimited, Falling Spring Greenway and Friends of the Teton River. Mr. Horn is an author as well and just published his third book, The Crimson Wave: Sockeye Salmon, Rainbow Trout & Alaska’s Bristol Bay.

Ms. Seidman served as assistant director of International Affairs of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from 2020 through 2022 following 20 years as a wildlife law practitioner and director of Litigation and International Affairs with SCI in Washington, D.C. In 2023, Ms. Seidman founded Two Right Shoes LLC. to provide meaningful and enjoyable continuing legal education courses to lawyers throughout the country, with special emphasis on professional ethics and subjects of interest to environmental law practitioners and those who practice in multiple jurisdictions. Throughout her career, she has focused on providing legal education for lawyers, law students and laypersons. Ms. Seidman has prepared and presented numerous courses on professional ethics and environmental law to both domestic and international audiences including the Legal Committees of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, and attendees of the International Wildlife Law Conference 2019, held in Barcelona, Spain. Prior to her work as a wildlife lawyer, Ms. Seidman practiced personal injury law and specialized in medical malpractice and products liability cases. She also consulted for the Nonprofit Risk Management Center and for the federal government on liability issues arising from volunteer activities provided by nonprofit entities. Ms. Seidman is the author and/or co-author of several publications, including Kidding Around? Be Serious: A Commitment to Safe Service Opportunities for Young People. She received a juris doctor with honors from the National Law Center of George Washington University Law School in 1982 and a Bachelor of Arts with honors from Brown University in 1979. Ms. Seidman is admitted to the courts of the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania and Virginia and has practiced pro hac vice in many courts around the country, including on multiple occasions in Alaska. In 2019 she received the Gary Taylor Award from the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies for her outstanding achievement in the field of public conservation policy.