Karen Perdue

Regent, Treasurer of the Board

204 Front Street Fairbanks, AK 99701

Term: 2017-2033

Karen Perdue, treasurer of the board, was reappointed to her second term by Governor Dunleavy. She is a lifelong Alaskan with a background in health care, public policy and maintains interests in the history and culture of Alaska.

Regent Perdue is a graduate of Stanford University. She is semi-retired, focusing her work on critical public health issues and serves on the board of the Fairbanks Memorial Hospital Foundation.

In her career, she has advocated for increased access to healthcare in Alaska's rural and urban communities. She served a decade as the Associate Vice President of Health Programs at the University of Alaska, in that role she worked with industry, chancellors and faculty in the expansion of the nursing, medical education, pharmacy, therapies and behavioral health academic programs.

She served as Commissioner of Alaska’s Department of Health and Social Services for eight years - the longest serving health commissioner since statehood.  

She served as a congressional aide and press secretary to Senator Ted Stevens.

In 2017, she was awarded an honorary doctorate of Laws from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the National Rural Mental Health Association Victor Howery Award and the Alaska Historical Society for her role in the Lost Alaskans Morningside Project, which traced the history of mental health care in territorial Alaska and the ancestral information of over 5,000 Alaskans sent outside of Alaska for care. She has been honored by both the Girl and Boy Scouts as a Distinguished Citizen.

Photo by JR Ancheta, University of Alaska Fairbanks