KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
Jay Barrett/KMXT
The executive director of the Kodiak Womens Resource and Crisis Center will be getting some well-deserved time off later this year, thanks to Alaska’s largest charitable foundations. Through the Rasmuson Foundation’s Sabbatical Program, Rebecca Shields will get some meaningful time away from the job.
“I am just so excited and so grateful for this opportunity. It’s an amazing opportunity the Rasmuson Foundation offers and I’m just incredibly honored and excited and I can’t wait.”
One of the stipulations of the Sabbatical Program is that a non-profit executive is expected to step completely away from their organizations.
“That is going to be an incredible challenge. Because the job has been something I’ve lived and breathed for 23 years. But it is a requirement of the sabbatical, and I think it is a wise requirement and I think it will be good for me. So I am fortunate to have a fantastic team here at the Womens Recourse Center who are very capable and who have been training for a long time to do just this.”
As for her plans, Shields says some international travel is in her future.
“My husband I are planning on seeing Europe. I have never seen Europe. It is something I’ve wanted to do my entire life, so we’re going to, well, we’ll start in New York and head to London and then Paris and then we’re going to travel through Italy. So I’ll get to see all kinds of things that have been on my bucket list and I’m really looking forward to that.”
During the history of the Rasmuson Foundation’s Sabbatical Program, three other Kodiak nonprofit leaders have taken part: Sven Haakenson, Pat Branson and Monte Hawver.
“I will be proud to be among them. And I think that this is really, again, just an incredible opportunity that the Rasmuson Foundation offers and it’s important for people in this line of work to be able to detach and come back and work even harder.”
Shields is one of seven non-profit leaders in Alaska who were recipients of the sabbatical award this year. Others hail from Kotzebue, Barrow, Anchorage, and Wasilla.
