Federal advocacy organization appointed a Native Alaskan as executive director

A Native Alaskan will lead a federal advocacy organization that protects Native contracting.

Quinton Uksi Carroll was appointed as an executive director of the Native American Contractors Association, which works to make federal contracting and opportunities available to Native businesses and to ensure that their interests are represented in federal policy.

Carroll, 35, grew up in Utqiaġvik. His father wildlife biologist Geoff Carroll originally moved to the community to count bowhead whales and help preserve the subsistence whaling.

“I grew up kind of in between both scientific and traditional Native culture,” Quinton Carroll said. “I spent a lot of time out on the ice with my dad helping to count the whales on the scientific side. .. My mom had three brothers who were whaling captains so I kind of helped them in different capacities.”

Quinton Carroll’s mother Marie Carroll was always involved in politics, he said. She was the first executive director of the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, served as CAO at the North Slope Borough and ran the Arctic Slope Native Association for a number of years.

“She was always kind of involved in different advocacy efforts,” Quinton Carroll said. He added that his mother’s activity also influenced his career path — which started with receiving his BA in economics at the University of Hawaii and his MBA at George Washington University.

“A big part of that was growing up in rural Alaska and realizing the difficulties of having a sustainable economy to support communities that are off the road system with really high energy costs and not always plentiful jobs,” he said.

Another big influence in his life was working for Tara Sweeney in the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. After leaving his job at the North Slope Borough, he ran into Tara Sweeney in the ASRC elevator, and she invited him to work for her starting the next day.

“I stumbled into policy and advocacy work kind of in that elevator ride essentially,” he said. “In my time at ASRC, I learned a lot working for Tara. ... She became a mentor over the years and really helped me to learn how to kind of see the big picture priority and then how to put the steps in place to get there.”

Since ASRC, Carroll has worked as a legislative coordinator at the Department of Interior and as a legislative assistant in the United States Senate, addressing numerous issues, including the National Defense Authorization Act and legislation promoting small businesses and economic development programs.

During his time working for Sen. Dan Sullivan, he said that one of his main accomplishments was helping to pass the Alaskan Native Vietnam Era Veterans Allotment Act, which opened up more lands for Alaska Native veterans. He also said he was proud they were able to send more federal funding to Alaska Native communities to help with domestic violence and substance abuse issues.

Now Quinton Carroll’s main focus is to increase Native contracting opportunities — the second largest economic generator for Native communities across the country, he said.

“It’s allowed them to provide economic benefits back to their communities,” he said.

Carroll now lives with his wife and kids in Alexandria, VA, and works in Washington, D.C. but he also goes back to Utqiaġvik regularly.

“My family still lives up there,” he said. “I have a son that’s about a month old and a daughter that’s two and a half. Living all the way out in Washington, DC, it feels very far from where I grew up, and it’s important to me that my kids kind of see how I grew up and experience the culture of their family.”