Barbara Fleek was born in Ketchikan, Alaska and is part of the Raven Moiety, Dry Bay Kwaan, L’uknax.adi (Coho Clan), Xixch’hit (Frog House). She spent her elementary and middle school years attending Pious X Mission School in Skagway as her mother and siblings did. Her grandfather left Norway when he was 13 years old and her Tlingit grandmother was from Klukwan/Haines. Together, her grandparents ran a fox farm on Sullivan Island where they also logged, fished, and farmed. She has had many wonderful memories and stories of her grandparents.
Barbara is now retired but used to work at the University of Alaska Anchorage, first as the Director of Native Student Services then the Director of the Alaska Natives into Psychology Program as well as an adjunct instructor. One highlight from her time as the Director of Native Student Services at UAA was when the students she worked with took it upon themselves to erect a bidarka carved by Alred Naumoff, an Aleut artist from Akhiok, near the entrance to Native Student Services . After retirement, Barbara worked for the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Alaska and the 2010 Census. She now has three daughters and five grandchildren with whom she loves to spend time with by hiking and running on trails in Southcentral Alaska.
