Becky Roberts was born and raised in Anchorage in an AUUF family. During her time at Macalester College in Minnesota—a school committed to global citizenship—she had the opportunity to visit Uganda with a Somali classmate. She later returned to work on youth empowerment projects. Becky also immersed herself in Anchorage’s rich international culture. She volunteered as a family mentor for the Refugee Assistance and Immigration Services and taught English at the Alaska Literacy Program. Later, she served four years as a Peace Corps Volunteer, teaching environmental education in Mexico, and then founded the independent collective organization Raíces del Mundo (Roots of the World) to promote cultural and ecological consciousness. In addition to traveling and learning about cultures, she also enjoys hiking, yoga, drawing mandalas, dancing, and music. Together for a better world!
Tony Gasbarro is a professor emeritus in UAF’s School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences. He was the state extension forester for the Cooperative Extension Service and retired in 1996 after 23 years on the faculty. Tony completed two Peace Corps assignments, in El Salvador and the Dominican Republic, spent nearly three years as a project operations officer in Rome with the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, and served five years as a field forester with the U.S. Forest Service in California and Alaska. After 45 years in Fairbanks, Tony moved to Raven’s Roost co-housing in Anchorage. He actively oversees scholarship programs and community development projects for a non-profit organization that helps the poor in rural El Salvador. He has visited El Salvador for three to five weeks annually since finishing his last Peace Corps assignment there in 1998.
