Superintendent: Norman Eck, Ph.D.
Dr. Norman Eck has been an administrator for 14 years. He has been Superintendent of the Northwest Arctic Borough School District for the past 4 years. This is the 12th year that Dr. Eck and his family have lived in the Northwest Arctic Borough and worked for the School District. In addition to being Superintendent he has been a principal and a director in the District’s administration. Last year, Dr. Eck was named Alaska’s Superintendent of the Year. He represented all Alaska superintendents at the AASA National Conference in San Francisco. Dr. Eck spoke and wrote for the conference, addressing the needs and accomplishments of education in Alaska.
Prior to moving to Alaska, Dr. Eck worked in the Southwestern part of the United States. He spent 12 years as a teacher, curriculum writer, and publisher of educational materials for the Navajo Nation.
During the decade of the 1980’s Dr. and Ms. Eck owned and operated their own printing and publishing company in Southwest Colorado. Additionally, Dr. Eck has been an Adjunct professor with Alaska Pacific University and the University of Alaska Southeast and for Chukchi College. He is also a veteran of the United States Naval Reserve in which he served from 1971 to 1976.
Dr. Eck has two Bachelors Degrees from Fort Lewis College, Durango Colorado. He received a degree in Anthropology in 1974 and a degree in English Education in 1991. Dr. Eck earned a Masters Degree from Prescott College in Educational Leadership in 1995 and a Ph.D. with emphasis in Native Education, from Union Institute, Cincinnati Ohio in 1997.
Dr. Eck is married to Jeri, wife of 38 years, a certified teacher. They have two children, a son, 16, and a daughter, 14.
Assistant Superintendent: Annmarie O’Brien Ed.D
Dr. Annmarie O’Brien joined NWABSD as Director of Curriculum and Instruction in July 1999 and has served as Assistant Superintendent since December 2005. She moved to Alaska in 1976 after four years of teaching at an elementary school in New York City.
Her rural school teaching experiences began in 1977 at Mikelnguut Elitnaurviat (M.E.) in Bethel where she worked for 8 years before taking a break to complete her doctorate studies.
During this interval she worked as a University Supervisor for teachers training to work with at-risk students and oversaw the evaluation of the Portland Teachers Program, a cooperative effort between Portland State University, Portland Community College, and Portland Public School to increase minority representation in the teaching profession.
Upon her return to Alaska she worked as a research associate at ISER/UAA, overseeing the Class Size Reduction Pilot Project for the State of Alaska; principal at Old Harbor School on Kodiak Island; and continues as adjunct faculty for UAA, APU and UAF.
She received her BS in Education from Boston University in 1971, MS in Education from Queens College the City University of New York in 1976, and her Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from Portland State University in 1994.
She served on the Board of the Alaska Arts Education Consortium, 2005-2008, and is currently an Alaska Association of School Administrators Board member.
Dr. O’Brien grew up in Queens, New York. She is married to William McGinty, her husband of 33 years, and has two sons, Michael and Liam.
Superintendent and Board Secretary: Marie Nelson-Gregg, ext. 234
Public Information Officer: Amber Murphy, M.Ed, ext. 250
Capital Projects Manager: Kathy Christy, (907) 868-3498