Team | Environmental Planning | Solstice Alaska Consulting

Our Team

Headquartered in midtown Anchorage, we provide environmental planning services throughout Alaska. Our specializations include National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documentation and assessments, environmental permitting, marine environment, and community and public involvement.

Robin Reich

Robin, President of SolsticeAK, has more than 20 years of experience in environmental studies, documentation, and permitting. Her varied background and knowledge enable her to effectively manage the writing of environmental documents involving multiple disciplines, stakeholders, and issues. Robin’s projects often require that she facilitate conversations between agencies, engineers, and clients to mitigate for potential impacts to the environment. She works closely with planners, scientists, and engineers to ensure that projects meet public and agency approval. Having grown up in Alaska and having spent her entire professional career helping public and private clients obtain regulatory approvals, Robin is well aware of the issues and challenges surrounding Alaskan projects. With experience in marine assessments and wetlands, water quality, and fisheries field studies, (and with a background that includes growing up commercial fishing in rural Alaska), Robin has a thorough understanding of issues that arise during environmental documentation and permitting.

Carrie Connaker

Carrie’s experience at SolsticeAK includes obtaining environmental permits, preparing grant applications, coordinating public involvement meetings, and writing environmental documents for energy, transportation, and infrastructure projects in Alaska. For SolsticeAK, she has prepared Categorical Exclusions and Environmental Assessments to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act, involving agency consultations, drafting project and alternative descriptions, and summarizing existing environmental conditions, impacts, and mitigation. She is familiar with the requirements of the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act and has worked in team settings to write Biological Assessments, Incidental Harassement Authorizations, and Marine Mammal Monitoring Plans. Her professional experience also includes over 12 years of work as a clinical embryologist for a fertility clinic in the Seattle area, where she was proficient with high-complexity lab processes as well as establishing connections with the clinic’s patient base. Carrie’s science-based background includes a B.A. in Biochemistry from Whitman College and a M.S. in Clinical Embryology and Andrology from Eastern Virginia Medical School. Carrie has lived and worked in Alaska for most of her life.

Emma Kimball

Emma’s experience at Solstice includes preparing environmental documents for residential developments and community infrastructure projects. She moved to Alaska in 2020 to work as a research assistant and pursue a graduate degree. As a research assistant Emma worked on a project focused on environmental change in Southcentral Alaska and its impacts on Alaska’s commercial salmon fisheries and related institutions. Emma has a B.A. in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic where she studied marine science and fisheries, and Master of Public Policy from the University of Alaska Anchorage. Her other experience ranges from commercial salmon fishing in Alaska and working on mariculture in Maine, to social science research on small-scale fisheries in Mexico and assisting with shark research in the Bahamas.

Sharon Boyette

Sharon has lived and worked in Bethel and Anchorage, Alaska since 1975. Her work for the Lower Kuskokwim School District (LKSD) and for the Aleutians East Borough has given her an understanding of the issues and concerns faced by rural Alaskan communities. As the grants administrator for LKSD, she planned, wrote, implemented and evaluated state and federal grant programs for 26 village schools. In several capacities and, ultimately, as the Borough Administrator, Sharon worked for the Aleutians East Borough for 20 years. Her expertise is in planning and managing large capital projects, writing and administering grant programs and working with municipalities and non-profit organizations to achieve their goals.

Rebecca Marks

Rebecca joined the Solstice team as an Environmental Planner in 2023. Her role at Solstice focuses on preparing environmental documents for residential development and commercial use infrastructure projects to comply with the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act. Rebecca grew up in New York and received her B.A. in Public Policy and Environmental Studies. Her wide-ranging professional experience includes natural resource specialist for the Alaska State Government, glacier guide in Kenai Fjords National Park, and Real Estate Law paralegal in New York City. She moved to Fairbanks, Alaska in 2021 and now calls Anchorage home.

Ashley Ruis

Ashley grew up in Virginia, and then moved to South Carolina where she received her B.S. in Marine Science from Coastal Carolina University. After graduation she worked in a variety of roles with the South Carolina State Park Service in the education department along with their sea turtle stranding and nesting program. In 2015, she moved to Ketchikan, Alaska where she has worked as the lead naturalist for a whale watching company, a protected species observer, and as the Education Specialist at UAS-Ketchikan’s Maritime Training Center. She holds a 100-ton Captain’s license, and is currently working on her Masters in Marine Policy through University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Kaelan Dickinson

Kaelan, a born and raised Alaskan, joined the Solstice Alaska Consulting team in 2023. Her experience ranges from teaching second grade as a Teach for America Corps member in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to working for the Alaskan delegation in the United States Senate. Kaelan has a B.A. in Law and Society from the University of California Santa Barbara. As a grant writer, her experience at Solstice includes writing and preparing grant applications for municipalities, Alaska Native villages, and Alaska Native corporations.

It is a Solstice Alaska Consulting, Inc. policy to afford equal employment opportunity to all qualified individuals without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, citizenship, age, gender, physical or mental disability/handicap, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other basis prohibited by local, state or federal law.