Viola Waghiyi

Environmental Health and Justice Program Director, Alaska Community Action on Toxics

Viola Waghiyi is a bilingual Yupik Eskimo who was born in Savoonga on St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. Although her family moved to Nome, she grew up in both communities, traveling between Nome and the Island throughout her childhood. Vi was hired in 2002 to work in Anchorage to assist on the St. Lawrence Island environmental health and justice project. She became the Project Coordinator in 2004, which included supervising ACAT’s research staff on St. Lawrence Island. When her work on the Island expanded in 2005 to include fifteen Native villages in the Norton Sound region, Vi’s title was changed to Environmental Justice Community Coordinator. In 2009, she stepped into the position of Environmental Health and Justice Program Director to share responsibilities with the executive director for all of ACAT’s efforts. Vi is sought out repeatedly to speak at national and international meetings about ACAT’s work.