PolarTREC Staff

Janet Warburton

Janet Warburton is a Project Manager for the PolarTREC program at the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States (ARCUS). Ms. Warburton has managed the education programs at ARCUS since 2000 and in that time has helped send dozens of teachers on research expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic. Ms. Warburton has lived and worked across the state of Alaska and now lives in Anchorage, Alaska.

Judy Fahnestock

Judy joined ARCUS in 2008 as a Project Assistant. She worked for eight years on various ARCUS programs and events before joining the PolarTREC team in 2016. She holds an M.Sc. in entomology from the University of Maryland, and natural resource degrees from the University of Massachusetts and Paul Smith's College. Her past employment includes sustainability work at the University of New Hampshire, avian research on the North slope of Alaska, horticultural work at the Smithsonian, and agricultural and horticultural integrated pest management around the northeast. Outside of PolarTREC, Judy's interests include all things "fiber-y", knitting socks on a circa 1900 circular sock machine, braiding rugs, cooking, and traveling with her husband and two sons. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, chickens, and her Old Time Scotch collie, Ollie.

Ronnie Owens

Ronnie joined the ARCUS team in July of 2004 as a web developer. His interests in the field of computing are manifold. While attending UAF he studied Mathematics with a double minor in Physics and Computer Science. Though he does spend an inordinate amount of time in front of a glowing screen, there are other areas that pique his interest. When not working he can be found listening to a great audiobook, playing with his awesome daughter, jogging in the sun, or locating the nearest establishment that serves tasty edible food items.

(red shirt on the right in the photo)

Zeb Polly

Zeb joined ARCUS in October of 2000 as the systems administrator. Zeb has lived in the Fairbanks area his whole life and has been working with computers since he was 5 years old. He used to co-host a Goldie Award Winning television program called the "Matinee With Matt & Zeb", but these days he entertains himself with curing various computer ailments and expanding ARCUS' technological capability. When not working, he spends his time playing on computers and attempting to make abstract electronic music. When he grows up he would like to be a robot or possibly a cyborg, but since he already does a great imitation, we suspect he has already grown up.

Joed Polly

Joed coordinates all of the video production at ARCUS, including recording conferences and meetings, editing promotional outreach videos videos for ARCUS and PolarTREC, and making them available online. Joed also maintains and updates the Internet Media Archive, the Arctic Calendar, and a lot of other media and web content. After graduating from the University of Massachusetts Boston in 2005, with a degree in Art, Joed has continued to live in the Boston area. In his free time he enjoys making short movies, photography, making large sculptures, hiking, camping, petting dogs, and eating tasty food. Come May or June, Joed feels like something just isn't quite right, and he has to return to Fairbanks to get in some midnight sun.