Honorary Degrees

Honorary doctorates will be presented to Aġnik Polly Schaeffer and Vera Kingeekuk Metcalf. Honorary doctorates recognize recipients’ lasting contributions to the state and nation, and significant achievements in recipients’ respective disciplines. UAF will celebrate Schaeffer and Metcalf at the 2026 Gold Ceremony on Friday, May 1, at 5:30 p.m. at the Davis Concert Hall on the Troth Yeddha’ Campus in Fairbanks.

Aġnik Polly Schaeffer
Vera Kingeekuk Metcalf

Aġnik Polly Schaeffer

Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters

Iñupiaq teacher, school founder, culture bearer

Aġnik, whose English name is Polly Schaeffer, is a revered Iñupiaq language teacher, culture bearer and visionary educator whose decades of work have helped sustain and revitalize the Iñupiaq language and way of life in Northwest �ֻ�ֱ��.

Born at Aksik, upriver from Noorvik, Aġnik was raised by her parents, Ikaaq and Qatlu Sheldon, first-language Iñupiaq speakers. She grew up in a subsistence lifestyle, but her father strongly valued formal education. She attended school in Wrangell and Sitka, including Mount Edgecumbe High School, and graduated from Nome-Beltz High School in 1967. In 1968, she married Tarruq Peter Schaeffer of Kotzebue.

Aġnik began teaching Iñupiaq in 1984 at the Northwest Arctic Borough School District. In 1998, she and her husband co-founded Nikaitchuat Ilisagviat in Kotzebue — the state's first tribally run Iñupiaq immersion school. The school's name means "anything is possible in a place of learning." More than 25 years later, Nikaitchuat remains a model for educators, parents and Iñupiaq learners across �ֻ�ֱ��.

Aġnik led the development of curriculum grounded in the Iñupiaq environment and way of living and shared it widely with teachers across the Iñupiaq Nunaat. Her leadership reflects the school’s core values: multilingualism, the cognitive benefits of language acquisition, the cultural insight gained through language learning and cross-cultural understanding.

Now retired, Aġnik continues to serve as a culture bearer, elder advisor and advocate, guiding regional efforts to strengthen Iñupiaq language and culture. She serves on the Kotzebue Elders Council and the Iñupiaq Language Commission and has received numerous honors, including the Eileen Panigeo MacLean Education Award from the �ֻ�ֱ�� Federation of Natives and Educator of the Year from the �ֻ�ֱ�� Native Education Council.

Vera Kingeekuk Metcalf

Honorary Doctor of Science

Yupik Leader, Subsistence Advocate, Arctic Policy Advisor

Vera Kingeekuk Metcalf is a respected Yupik leader whose lifelong work has advanced Indigenous knowledge, subsistence traditions and Arctic policy at local, national and international levels.

Born and raised in Savoonga on St. Lawrence Island, Metcalf has built enduring partnerships among communities, research institutions and government agencies to ensure that Arctic Indigenous voices inform decision-making.

A graduate of the �ֻ�ֱ�� with a bachelor’s degree in rural development, Metcalf has served since 2002 as director of the Eskimo Walrus Commission at Kawerak Inc. In this role, she has been a leading advocate for community-based research and the co-management of Pacific walrus, working to protect both marine mammal populations and the subsistence lifeways that depend on them. Her work bridges technical, policy and cultural domains, consistently centering Indigenous knowledge as essential to effective stewardship.

Metcalf’s expertise has been recognized through appointments to the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, to the executive committee of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, and as special advisor on Native affairs to the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission. She is also widely respected for her contributions to cultural preservation, including her role in the repatriation of more than 1,000 ancestral remains to St. Lawrence Island and her work on publications documenting Yupik history and knowledge.

Metcalf continues to support education, research and the arts in Nome and Savoonga, while serving on the advisory committees for UAF’s College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences and �ֻ�ֱ�� Sea Grant.