Arts & Culture

Arts and Culture Programming: Lisa Nilsen

Lisa Nilsen was born in Petersburg, Alaska and raised in the neighboring Tlingit village, Kake.  Her parents infused her formative years with puppet shows, all forms of art, music and service.

Lisa earned her Bachelor of Education, K-8.  She completed her student teaching and graduated from University of Alaska, Southeast in 1996, just as her first son turned one.  Four more children followed in the next 7 years.  Her husband Yancey, a commercial fisherman, began leaving to fish “out west” (the Aleutians) in 2020.

Focusing on her young family, Lisa’s work life followed her children.  She owned a licensed 12-space daycare while they were preschoolers, managed licensed school-age programs for school districts and recreation facilities during their school-age years.  As her children moved through junior and high school, she owned two retail shops (Skate of Gear, a roller-skate shop and Love & Matter, a floral, gift and learning studio).  Her children often worked for her, or skated the junior roller derby league she coached (when their dad wasn’t hiring them for a commercial fishing season). 

She has also served as the Fire Chief of the Tenakee Volunteer Fire Department, owned a live-crab exporting company, a residential cleaning business and held a commercial lines insurance license.  Her expertise is in developing, coordinating and teaching recreation, art and cultural programs for children, youth and adults.

Her children all grown, Lisa sat Yancey down in December of 2022 and said, “I am coming with you, out west.”  As soon as she arrived on this island, even as a guest, she felt she was home.  The family dogs, Leutian and Joy, all her living cultures (kefir, kombucha, kraut) and the plant collection she has begun are all thriving here.  “Best mid-life crisis ever,” she says to Yancey on a regular basis.