Rachel Donkersloot, Ph.D.
Rachel Donkersloot is a social scientist by training with broad experience working with communities, non-profits, Tribes, Universities, and other fishing and community-based organizations across the state. With more than a decade of policy and research experience in rural fishing communities across the North Pacific and North Atlantic, her work concentrates on fishing community sustainability, equity, rural well-being, Alaska Native livelihoods, marine resource governance, and contemporary youth in the Global North.
Rachel is committed to collaborative research and solutions-focused projects that incorporate and respect diverse forms of data and knowledge, as well as ethical research protocols and data collection efforts that can help improve management and decision-making processes.
Recent research projects include: Graying of the Fleet: Defining the Problem, Assessing Alternatives (2014-2017); Well-Being and Alaska Salmon Systems (2016-2019); and the Indigenizing Salmon Management Project (2017-2023). She recently launched her latest project, Resource Access, Well-Being, and Small-Scale Fishing Livelihoods in Alaska’s Rural and Indigenous Communities (2021-2024), in partnership with Igiugig Village Council. Her work has been recognized nationally and featured in National Fisherman, The New York Times, The Bristol Bay Times, and several academic journals. She has been invited to present her work to such decision-making bodies as the Alaska Legislature, North Pacific Fishery Management Council, and the House of Commons Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans.
Rachel currently serves on the National Academies of Sciences Committee tasked with Assessing Equity in the Distribution of Fisheries Management Benefits. She also serves on the North Pacific Fishery Management Council’s Local Knowledge, Traditional Knowledge and Subsistence Taskforce. She as served as Affiliate Faculty at the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at the University of Alaska Fairbanks for several years. Rachel was raised in Naknek and maintains strong connections to the region while making new connections in her current home of Aniak, Alaska.
Select Publications
Righting the Ship: Restoring Local Fishing Access and Opportunity in Bristol Bay Salmon Fisheries. 2021. Report prepared for The Nature Conservancy.
Assessing the sustainability and equity of Alaska salmon fisheries through a well-being framework. 2020. Ecology and Society 25 (2):18. Donkersloot, R., J. C. Black, C. Carothers, D. Ringer, W. Justin, P. M. Clay, M. R. Poe, E. R. Gavenus, W. Voinot-Baron, C. Stevens, M. Williams, J. Raymond-Yakoubian, F. Christiansen, S. Jo Breslow, S. J. Langdon, J. M. Coleman and S. Clark. https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol25/iss2/art18/
Kin, Community and Hidden Economies: Rethinking Resource Governance in Alaska Rural Fisheries.
2020. Marine Policy 117; Donkersloot, R. Coleman, J., C. Carothers, D. Ringer, P. Cullenberg. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2020.103966
Small-Scale Sustainability:
Market and Policy-Based Solutions for the Kodiak Jig Fleet in the Gulf of Alaska.
Forthcoming. FAO Technical Paper for GCP Project: Enhancing the contribution of small-scale fisheries to food security and sustainable livelihoods through better policies, strategies and initiatives (PGM/MUL/2015-2018/SSF); Peterson, T. and R. Donkersloot.
Beyond privatization:
Rethinking fisheries stewardship and conservation in the North Pacific.
2017. In Conservation for the Anthropocene Ocean: Interdisciplinary Science in Support of Nature and People (eds. Levin, P. and M. Poe). USA, Elsevier; Donkersloot, R. and C. Carothers. 2017.
Turning the Tide:
How Can Alaska Address the Graying of the Fleet and Loss of Rural Fisheries Access?
2017. Report funded by North Pacific Research Board and Alaska Sea Grant; Cullenberg, P., R. Donkersloot, C. Carothers, D. Ringer and J. Coleman.
Graying of the Fleet:
Understanding Factors Affecting Local Fisheries Access in Coastal Alaska.
2016. Environment Magazine: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development 58(3):30-42; Donkersloot, R. and C. Carothers.
Considering Community Allocations in the Emerging Gulf of Alaska Catch Share Program.
2016. Marine Policy (Special Issue) 74:300-308; Donkersloot, R.
Place-Based Fishing Livelihoods and the Global Ocean:
The Irish Pelagic Fleet at Home and Abroad.
2015. Journal of Maritime Studies (MAST) 14:20; Donkersloot, R. and C. Menzies.
Alaska’s Next Generation of Potential Fishermen:
A Survey of Youth Attitudes Towards Fishing and Community in Bristol Bay and the Kodiak Archipelago.
2018. Maritime Studies 109; Coleman, J., C. Carothers, R. Donkersloot, D. Ringer, P. Cullenberg and A. Bateman.
For generations to come?
The privatization paradigm and shifting social baselines in Kodiak, Alaska’s commercial fisheries.
2018. Marine Policy 98: 97-103; Ringer, D., C. Carothers, R. Donkersloot, J. Coleman, and P. Cullenberg.
Ocean Acidification and Alaska Fisheries:
Views and Voices of Alaska’s Fishermen, Marine Industries and Coastal Residents.
2012. Report for Alaska Marine Conservation Council; Donkersloot, R.
Gendered and Generational Experiences of Place and Power in the Rural Irish Landscape.
2012. Gender, Place and Culture 19(5):578-598; Donkersloot, R.
Comparative Ethnographic Studies of Enumeration Methods and Coverage in Race/Ethnic Groups in the Census Coverage Measurement Person Interview Operation: Kodiak Island Borough, Alaska.
2011. Report prepared for the 2010 Census Program of Evaluations and Experiments (CPEX). Center for Survey Measurement, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington D.C.; Donkersloot, R.
The Politics of Place and Identity in an Irish Fishing Locale.
2010. Journal of Maritime Studies (MAST) 9(2):31-51; Donkersloot, R.
Youth Emigration and Reasons to Stay:
Linking Demographic and Ecological Change in Bristol Bay, Alaska.
2007. In Alaska’s Fishing Communities: Harvesting the Future. Pp. 73-79. Fairbanks: Alaska Sea Grant College Program; Donkersloot, R.
Select Symposia & Conference Presentations
Inequities and Erasures: Decolonizing and Indigenizing Alaska Fishery Science and Management Systems. Session organized for Society for Applied Anthropology meeting (virtual), March 2021; D. Ringer (co-organizer)
Restoring Rural and Alaska Native Access to Alaska Fisheries. SWAMC Annual Conference (virtual); March 2021; R. Donkersloot
Advancing Indigenous Collaborations in Fishery Science and Management.
Paper presented at Wakefield Symposium, Anchorage, AK, May 9, 2019; Donkersloot, R., J. Black, C. Carothers, and D. Ringer
Indigenous-Centered Collaborations in Applied Environmental Anthropology Dialogue.
Society for Applied Anthropology meeting, Portland Oregon, March 2019; Black, J., C. Carothers, R. Donkersloot, M. Poe, M. Watkinson, L. Zanotti, J. Samuelson, B. Wright, A. Salmon, J. Coleman, and D. Ringer
Incorporating Well-Being Concepts into Salmon Management:
Lessons from Alaska.
Society for Applied Anthropology meeting, Portland Oregon, March 2019; Donkersloot, R., C. Carothers, J. Black, D. Ringer, J. Coleman & SASAP Advisors.
Conceptualizing and measuring well-being in Alaska's salmon fisheries.
American Fisheries Society Meeting, Atlantic City, NJ, August 2018; Donkersloot, R. C. Carothers, J. Black, D. Ringer, J. Coleman and E. Gavenus.
Salmon Management to Salmon Stewardship Dialogue.
WDAFS Meeting, Anchorage, AK, May 24, 2018; C. Carothers, J. Black, R. Donkersloot
Reconstructing stewardship:
Local conservation practices and principles in Alaska’s small-scale fisheries.
2016. Paper presented at International Marine Conservation Congress (IMCC) Conference, St. John’s Newfoundland; Donkersloot, R.
Graying of the Fleet in Alaska Fisheries.
2016. Paper presented at International Marine Conservation Congress (IMCC) Conference, St. John’s Newfoundland; Donkersloot, R.
Expert Testimony & Speaking Invitations
Sustaining, knowing, and living the Blue, Trondheim, Norway 2023; Keynote
UTBB Sustainability Summit, Dillingham, AK 2023
Alaska Law Review Symposium, Anchorage, AK 2022
House of Commons Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans
Ottawa, Canada, January 2019
North Pacific Fishery Management Council, Kodiak, AK, June 2018
Fisheries for Communities Gathering, EcoTrust Canada
Vancouver, BC, 2018
SlowFish USA, San Francisco, CA, 2018
House Fisheries Committee, Alaska State Legislature
Juneau, AK, April 2017
Bristol Bay Native Corp. Leadership Forum
Anchorage, AK, December 2017; Keynote