Neidig named DOI Alaska special assistant

Hans Neidig of Wasilla was named special assistant to the secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior for Alaska, effective June 5. He fills the position left vacant when Cam Toohey went to work for Shell Exploration and Production in Alaska in January.

Interior said Neidig fought wildland fires with the Bureau of Land Management’s Alaska Fire Service for five seasons on the Northstar, Midnight Sun and Chena Hotshot fire crews, worked for the Alaska State Parks Conservation Corps, guided anglers in western Alaska and worked on a clean-up crew following the Valdez.html'>Exxon Valdez Oil Spill.

Most recently he has been executive director of Valley Healthy Communities Program, a nonprofit organization supporting community health initiatives in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.

Interior said Neidig grew up training and racing sled dogs, subsistence hunting and fishing with his father and running a trap-line to pay for his ice-hockey equipment.

Neidig worked as an aide to U.S. Sens. Alan Simpson of Wyoming and Ted Stevens of Alaska, and served as a legislative aide in the Alaska Legislature for five sessions, working for both House and Senate members on various natural resource issues. He also served as an aide to the Resources Committee in the Alaska House.

Neidig will report to Drue Pearce, the Washington, D.C.-based senior advisor for Alaska affairs.