About Edgar (Omegitjoak) BLatchford, PH.D

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He was born in Nome and raised in Seward, graduating from Seward High School. He values education, and enjoys constantly learning.  

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, 2013
Masters of Public Administration, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government, 2011
Masters of Arts, Dartmouth College, 2010.
Masters of Science. Columbia University in the City of New York Graduate School of Journalism, 1988.
Juris Doctor. University of Washington School of Law, 1976.
Bachelor of Arts. Alaska Methodist University (Anchorage, Alaska), 1973.

Edgar’s hobbies include staying active and running marathons. His fastest marathon is 2:49. He has run Seward’s Mountain Marathon Men’s Race 20 times, placing in the top 10 -eight times.

Professor Edgar Blatchford teaches at the University of Alaska Anchorage in the Department of Journalism and Communication and the Department of Alaska Native Studies since 1995. Dr. Blatchford’s classes in editing, media law, mass communications, public relations, public policy, politics, the first amendment, and Alaska media history are popular with his students. He is also a highly regarded expert in Alaska Native corporations and tribes, nations and peoples.

He’s been appointed by governors Egan, Hickel and Murkowski to sit on numerous state board and commissions including Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, Alaska Municipal Bond Bank Authority, Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, Alaska Railroad Corporation and others. Cabinet of Governor Hickel as Commissioner of Community and Regional Affairs, and also served in the Cabinet of Governor Frank Murkowski as Commissioner of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development.

 Edgar held public office as Mayor of Seward 1999-2003 .

Edgar is also a long time, experienced businessman. He is currently an active member of the Board of Directors for the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce. He’s a former chairman of the board and president of Chugach Natives, Inc. (now Chugach Alaska Corporation). Aside from being a veteran journalist and a newspaper publisher, Edgar founded the largest weekly newspaper chain in the 1980s and is also currently a small business owner of All Alaska News, LLC.

Edgar is very proud to have a strong union background. He followed in his father’s footsteps to become a member of International Union of Operating Engineers Local 302 http://www.iuoe302.org/  so he could earn money to go to college. He became a member at Age 18 of Operating Engineers, Local 302. In 1969 his first union job was on Amchitka followed by five seasons in the Aleutian Islands. When construction on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline began, he worked in Valdez, Glennallen and Tonsina.