WELCOME YOUR March YEAR-LONG VISTAs!

Shea, Diana and Aisha will serve Fairbanks from March 16, 2020 - March 15, 2021. Year-long VISTAs perform indirect service focusing on capacity building. Stay tuned for updates as their year progresses!

​Shea Brenneman, United Way Volunteer Center Coordinator 

​Shea comes from Colorado Springs in the Rocky Mountains. She will be helping the United Way of Tanana Valley to establish an effective, viable, and sustainable Volunteer Action Center (VAC). She is looking forward to engaging with the nonprofit roots of Fairbanks and making it easy for people of the Golden Heart of Alaska to discover volunteer opportunities to strengthen and support their community. The quirky, endearing culture of Fairbanks already apparent, she is sure that this next year will be one for the books. 

Diana Ramstad,
Youth Homelessness Demonstration VISTA

​Diana was born and raised in Alaska in Lake Clark National Park & Preserve. She grew up with horses on Blodgett Lake and remotely flying in small planes around the state with her father. In January 2017, she came to Fairbanks to attend the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She will graduate this spring with a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies and minors in Art and General Education. Diana serves at Fairbanks Youth Advocates establishing a practical, viable and sustainable Youth Homelessness Demonstration Project. She is very excited to be a part of VISTA; the chance to be able to help people is significant to her.

Aisha Pereira, Development and Communications Coordinator

Aisha joins Americorps VISTA after moving up from a small town in coastal Maine. She is looking forward to spending her year assisting Restore Inc as their new Development and Communications Coordinator.  Her time here will be focused on helping the organization with fundraising, grant writing and so much more. Aisha is very excited for the opportunity to help some of the most vulnerable populations (pre- and post- release individuals, those recovering from homelessness and addiction) as well as the chance to use her English degree and behavioral health experience to do so. In her free time, Aisha enjoys exploring the area with her rescue dogs she adopted in Mississippi who are enjoying the snow just as much as she is!