Alaska Native Wins MacArthur Prize

Now the agency employs 1,200 people and operates more than a dozen programs, from outpatient clinics to a primary care facility on Tudor Road. Alaska Natives no longer have to wait in line for health care but can get in to see their family doctor the same day they call for an appointment, Gottlieb said.

To the health service, Southcentral's growth has been "a very big deal," Mandregan said. By using grants to supplement its federal funding, Gottlieb's agency has accomplished more than the health service could have, he said.

Gottlieb said she believes health care must extend deep into the Native community and has used her imagination to achieve her goals. About 10 years ago, she said, she failed to persuade a group of Native leaders to support a new project tackling the sensitive subject of child sexual abuse.

Katherine Gottlieb
(Photo courtesy of the MacArthur Foundation)

After thinking it over, she came back. "This time, I said, 'We're calling out the warriors. I need you as tribal men like you were in the old days, when you were willing to risk your lives for your wives and children and willing to step forward to defend and protect us.' You could feel it -- everything changed. They said, 'What do you need?' "

That became the Family Wellness Warriors Initiative, one of her favorite projects at Southcentral Foundation, she said. Others include Dena A Coy, a home where pregnant women can live as they go through substance-abuse treatment; Pathway Home, a residential treatment center for troubled adolescents, particularly Alaska Natives; and programs to assist elders, infants and those with persistent mental illness.

Friends have enjoyed watching Gottlieb succeed, said Diane Kaplan, executive director of the Rasmuson Foundation and one of those who nominated her.

"Kathy may be a health care bureaucrat, but she's a true entrepreneur in spirit of J.D. (MacArthur)," who would have appreciated Gottlieb's abilities, Kaplan said. To have risen from receptionist to president is "a great story. She's really quite a human being."

Gottlieb cried when the MacArthur foundation called. Luckily, she said, she has several months to decide what to do with the prize. But it won't be a ticket out of the health-care bureaucracy, she said.

"I love what I do," Gottlieb said. "(The $500,000) is a bonus on top of what I'm doing."