Kalke brings community-driven energy solutions to the North
Tim Kalke has joined ACEP as research faculty.
November 6, 2025
With his unique background — as a captain in the U.S. Army, a rural Alaska high school teacher, a river guide and a community advocate — Tim Kalke is bringing broad perspectives to ACEP.
He joined the team as a research faculty member in October.
Kalke, who originally hails from Wyoming, earned a bachelor’s degree in history and secondary education from the University of Northern Colorado. After serving in the Army, he decided to head north. In 2009 he landed in Galena, a community along the Yukon River about 270 miles west of Fairbanks, to teach high school social studies.
He soon realized that high costs, dependency on expensive fossil fuels and limited options for energy were a drag on the community's economy.
With his passion for the environment and academia, Kalke used a Galena biomass harvest management plan project as part of earning a master’s degree in natural resources with an emphasis on sustainable development from Oregon State University. His vision for a resilient energy future helped establish the, or SEGA, in 2014, a partnership among the Galena school district, Louden Tribe and the city of Galena.
Transitioning to the position of manager at SEGA and working directly with neighbors and local leaders, Kalke helped chart a course for renewable energy adoption and practical strategies to reduce diesel dependence in Galena.
From an initial biomass harvesting operation that provides heat to the high school, SEGA’s operations have expanded to include becoming a solar independent power producer, or IPP, and constructing housing to address Galena’s limited housing options.
Kalke looked at ways that energy and workforce development can go together. He developed a vision about how community-driven planning could be used across rural Alaska and beyond. He is exploring how communities can govern and sustain their own energy futures as his focus while pursuing a Ph.D. degree in environment and sustainability at the University of Saskatchewan.
“Tim’s experience leading SEGA and his doctoral studies will inform his work with communities to address energy dilemmas and develop creative solutions to Alaska's energy challenges,” said Diane Hirshberg, Kalke’s doctoral mentor and ACEP affiliate.
Kalke aims to help build bridges among local energy needs, innovative research and policy frameworks that support community-led change. He hopes that his focus will help strengthen ACEP’s mission to advance energy security and resilience across Alaska.
“I’m interested in expanding academic as well as practical contributions to the field of energy security in remote northern Indigenous communities,” he said.
At ACEP, Kalke will be contributing to initiatives such as the ARCTIC, or, program.
He has been participating in a multi-year project with the, or CASES, partnership, an international research initiative led by the University of Saskatchewan, involving 15 northern and Indigenous communities and public and private sector project partners from Canada, Alaska, Sweden and Norway.
“CASES, aligned with my studies, has been instrumental in practicing an action research approach to facilitating a community energy plan with an advisory group in Galena,” Kalke said.
Other work will involve community energy planning, IPP research, developing place-based educational courses around Alaska communities and energy, and providing technical assistance to community microgrids across the nation.
Kalke enjoys living in Galena. In his free time, he takes pleasure in running, cycling and other sports and listening to music.
And parenting is important to Kalke.
“I want to be a good role model for my children,” he said.
“Tim is an engaged father. He is just a kind, good person,” Hirshberg said.
And then she lowered her voice and added with a chuckle, “He’s also a huge fan of Metallica (a heavy metal band) and has been to well over a dozen shows!”