Adelheid Herrmann

Adelheid Herrmann (born April 15, 1953) is a Dena'ina Athabaskan researcher and politician.^[2] She is a shareholder in the Bristol Bay Native Corporation, one of the 13 Alaska Native corporations.^[1]

Adelheid Herrmann
Member of the Alaska House of Representatives from the 26th district
In office 1983–1989
Personal details
Born	(1953-04-15) April 15, 1953 (age 72) Levelock, Alaska, U.S.[1]
Political party	Democratic
Alma mater	Antioch University University of La Verne (D.Ed.)
Occupation	Politician, educator

Early life and education

Herrmann is the granddaughter of Charles Herrmann (1893–1959) and Anna Gartelman Herrmann. Charles Herrmann was born in Kiel, Germany, migrated to San Francisco in 1910, and found employment in the Bristol Bay area of Alaska. Anna Gartelman was Aleut woman from Nushagak.^[3]

Adelheid was born in Levelock, Alaska on April 15, 1953,^[4] and grew up in Naknek, where she attended Bristol Bay High School (1966-1970).^[5] She earned a degree in public policy, fisheries, and Native American studies (1999) from Antioch University and a D.Ed. in organizational leadership with an emphasis in fisheries and oceans (2013) from the University of La Verne in California.^[1]

Career

From 1983 to 1989 Herrmann was a member of the Alaska House of Representatives, representing Naknek for the Democratic Party in the 13th, 14th and 15th legislatures.^[1][6][7]

As of February 2025^[update] she is a post-doctoral research assistant at the International Arctic Research Center (IARC) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where her areas of expertise are climate adaptation and social science;^[8] she is working on a project "with the goal of building the capacity of rural communities to respond and adapt to climate change"^[9] She is also a member of the Council of Elders of Alaska Pacific University, a body whose mission is "to support, strengthen, and ensure the development, integration, and prioritization of encompassing Alaska Native knowledge, language, values, perspectives, history, and concerns in education at Alaska Pacific University". As a member of the Council of Elders, Herrmann aims to implement the "tribal college concept" which places Native Alaskans themselves as the head of their educational path.^[1][10]