September 16, 1998» NR 23-1998

Fairbanks Regent Mary Jane Fate, Nancy Murkowski Honored Nationally for Promotion of Cancer Awareness

University of Alaska Regent Mary Jane Fate and Nancy Murkowski, wife of U. S. Senator Frank Murkowski, are among four prominent Americans chosen to receive 1998 Cancer Awareness Awards later this month in Washington, D. C.

Fate and Murkowski will join honorees Sam Donaldson, ABC News White House correspondent; and Sue Ann Thompson, wife of Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson at the honors luncheon in the Russell Senate Office Building on Thursday, September 24 at noon. The four are being honored by The Congressional Families Action for Cancer Awareness.

Fate, a Koyukon Athabascan from Fairbanks, was born in Rampart, graduated from Mt. Edgecumbe in Sitka in 1952 and attended the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She has also received an honorary doctorate of law degree from UAF.

Long an advocate for educating the public about the value of prevention and early detection in the fight against cancer, Fate is a member of the board of directors of the Breast Cancer Detection Center which she helped found in the 1970s with Nancy Murkowski. Fate was also was a founding member of the North American Indian Women's Association and in 1975 was its third national president. She was the director of a national research project which when completed was presented to the Congress and made an impact on the treatment and care of Indian children and women.

Fate is a former co-chair of the Alaska Federation of Natives, and from 1981 to 1987 she was the first women and first Alaska Native to serve on the Alaska Judicial Council.

She currently serves on the boards of the Alaska Air Group, Alaska Airlines, Inc., Baan o Yeel Kon Corporation, the Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education and the Alaskan Command Civilian Advisory Board, in addition to her work with the Breast Cancer Detection Center and the UA Board of Regents.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Bob Miller, 907-474-7272