Fairbanks Chamber Weekly Business Luncheon: MG Hummel: Update on Alaska National Guard

Major General Laurie Hummel is the Adjutant General of the Alaska National Guard and the Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Military & Veterans’ Affairs. Daughter of a career Army Sergeant and a third generation Soldier, she graduated from the U.S Military Academy at West Point in 1982. Commissioned as a Military Intelligence Officer, she began a 30 year Active Duty career with command and staff positions in the 24th Infantry Division and the 224th military Intelligence Battalion (Aerial Exploitation), serving 6 years in the 18th Airborne Corps.

In 1991, after completing her Master’s degree in Geography at Penn State, MG Hummel returned to West Point as an instructor in the Department of Geography & Environmental Engineering. In 1995 she served as Director of Operations for the 102nd Military Intelligence Battalion, close to Korea’s Demilitarized Zone, and then as Chief of Operations Intelligence and Director of the Joint Intelligence Support Element for Alaskan Command at Elmendorf Air Force Base.

During her studies toward a doctorate degree from 2000-2002 at the University of Colorado, MG Hummel returned to Alaska to research the effects the huge military investment made through Alaska during the Cold War era. In 2002 she earned her Ph.D. in Geography and returned to West Point as a tenured professor in the department of geography and Environmental Engineering. After completing the US Army War College in Carlisle, she became director of West Point’s Geography Program. As a geographer with expertise in political demography and the geographical roots of terrorism, MG Hummel served as a policy consultant to government agencies and other organizations. She joined several missions in support of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom: first as an advisor for a program using social and environmental science to assist commanders in the field; then two tours as an Advisor to the Afghan National Army. MG Hummel retired from active duty as a Colonel on June 1, 2012 and was called back into service in the National Guard on February 5, 2015.

She is married to Chad Parker. They have two children, Kayleigh and Michael, and an increasing number of grandchildren.