Anchorage Mayor LaFrance Announces 6 More Leadership Appointments in Her Office

Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance on Wednesday announced the appointments of six more people to leadership positions in the mayor’s office.

LaFrance took office on Monday.

Her appointments to the Mayor’s Office staff are as follows:

• Barbara Jones, a former longtime city official, will become LaFrance’s deputy chief of staff.

• Nolan Klouda is joining as policy director. Klouda has served as executive director of the University of Alaska Center for Economic Development for the past 10 years.

• Farina Brown will serve LaFrance as special assistant for homelessness and health. Brown is leaving her role at the Rasmuson Foundation, where she oversees the foundation’s homelessness initiatives as a program officer, according to a statement from LaFrance announcing the appointments.

• Graham Downey has been named LaFrance’s special assistant for housing and transportation. He joins the mayor’s office from the Alaska Public Interest Research Group, where he served as manager of economic justice.

• Marie Husa is joining the mayor’s office as director of constituent relations. Husa joins from a position with the Bering Straits Native Corp., according to a statement.

• Amanda K. Moser, former executive director of the Anchorage Downtown Partnership, serves as LaFrance’s director of external affairs.

“Our team is aligned around a common approach: collaborative problem-solving with a focus on serving the residents of Anchorage,” LaFrance said in a statement. “Each of these individuals brings deep expertise and a deep commitment to our community.”

Jones retired from the city clerk’s office in 2023 after 11 years in the position. She previously served as the city’s ombudsman and spent six years as executive director of the Anchorage Equal Rights Commission, which investigates discrimination and harassment in the borough.

After retiring, Jones worked as a paid volunteer coordinator for the LaFrance campaign.

According to a statement from LaFrance Kloud, who has worked at the university for more than 14 years, he will help lead a team of mayoral staff that will implement the administration’s priorities.

Klouda has recently advocated for reform of the city’s zoning and land use laws as a way to address Anchorage’s housing shortage. In his role at the university, he conducted an economic analysis for the Anchorage Economic Development Corp.’s recent sales tax proposal.

As special assistant for homelessness and health, Brown will “work to advance the administration’s key priorities for addressing homelessness and promoting community health and safety.”

Brown previously served as deputy director of the Alaska Department of Behavioral Health before taking the position at the Rasmuson Foundation in 2023, according to the foundation’s bio.

Downey, as special assistant for housing and transportation, will work to promote LaFrance’s priorities in housing, transportation and community development, according to a statement. At the Alaska Public Interest Research Group, he focuses on housing, debt and economic issues affecting working families, the statement said.

Husa previously worked for the borough, spending six years as an investigator for the Anchorage Equal Rights Commission. In her new role as director of constituent relations, she will “work to ensure that Anchorage residents of all backgrounds have a direct line of communication with the Mayor’s Office,” according to a statement.

Moser, who will oversee communications for the mayor’s office, served in a similar role as communications director under former Gov. Bill Walker. She also served as deputy city clerk of Anchorage, where she managed the city’s elections and helped transition the city to its current all-mail voting system.

Moser began serving as executive director of the downtown partnership in 2019 before leaving the organization in 2022 to become chief strategy officer for Alaskans For Better Elections, an advocacy group promoting ranked-choice voting, where she focused on the state’s transition to a new ranked-choice voting system.

LaFrance has made several other executive appointments in the past month. They include Katie Scovic as chief of staff and Becky Windt Pearson as city manager; Eva Gardner as city attorney and Bill Falsey as chief administrative officer; and Sean Case as head of the Anchorage Police Department.