Meet Our Team
Staff
Jay Stilwell
Executive Director
Jay has worked in both for-profit and non-profit organizations holding leadership positions. He was the founder of a publishing-technology company in Seattle where he led the company from a startup to a sustainable organization. When he moved to Sitka, he joined the Sitka Sound Science Center and was instrumental in directing the 2021 Sitka Whalefest. Jay is active in the Sitka community as a member of the Rotary and can be seen volunteering at local events. As a member of the Fortress of the Bear Team, he brings tourism, marketing, and organizational development experience from his work with organizations in a variety of industries. He enjoys being outdoors on his bike, boat, or kayak. You can often see him on the water or hiking one of the local trails.
Les Kinnear
Founder
Les is the founder and project manager of the Fortress of the Bear. He established access to the Sitka pulp mill facility to create a bear cub recovery, training and distribution center to deal with the orphan bear cubs that were being destroyed due to Alaska’s lack of rehabilitation and release program. This involved identifying and gaining long term access to several large abandoned pulp mill waste water treatment tanks near Sitka, Alaska. The process involved removing more than 500 tons of abandoned mill infrastructure and creating the perimeter security systems, bear management systems, nutritional assets, veterinary requirements, safety criteria to be able to recover, manage, maintain, display and transfer bears under authority of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
He designed and fabricated all of the gating, security, and visitor amenities . Thanks to Les’ vision, Fortress of the Bear is one of three facilities in the state approved to hold, train, and disburse bears for the state of Alaska.
Today, Les can be found greeting visitors and sharing stories about his experience being a local guide and his love of bears.
Claire Turner
Curator
Claire initially found Fortress of the Bear online, while looking for places to conduct bear intelligence research for her university dissertation. She was studying Animal Behaviour at the University of Exeter in England, and traveled to Sitka to work with Balloo in 2012. She fell in love with the project fast, and has been with Fortress of the Bear ever since! She returned for two more voluntary work trips, then two different paid work visas, before getting her green card as a resident alien. Now she’s with us year round!
Although Claire started as a volunteer, she is now our Curator. She developed our summer internship program, to provide on-site learning opportunities for people looking to get into the animal care industry. She leads the charge in all aspects of our bear husbandry. Her day-to-day consists of overseeing bear keeper staff and assisting them with the bears daily needs, preparing and monitoring seasonal nutrition, conducting training, creating and preparing enrichment and collaborating with veterinarians and other specialists.
A highlight of Claire’s professional career has been hand rearing the facility’s three resident black bears, Smokey, Bandit and Tuliaan, and watching them grow in to beautiful, independent, wild bears.
In 2015, Claire and her husband started a family in Sitka, and in 2018 they obtained green cards to remain in the US as permanent residents. In her spare time, Claire is an artist and graphic designer; she provides many of Fortress of the Bear’s t-shirt and merchandise designs, which you can find in our online store! She also plays a key role in our social media management!
Barb Self
Operations Manager
Barb Self is our Operation Manager and she is responsible for making sure all aspects of Fortress of the Bear run smoothly. Barb has been a part of Fortress since the beginning in 2002. Her Father is Fortress founder Les Kinnear. She was raised in Sitka and is a graduate of Sitka High. After high school, she had an opportunity to live 3 years in Europe while her husband was in the army. After Europe, Barb lived in the Western Alaska in the villages for 6 years and then homestead in the Alaskan Wilderness for 3 years. She enjoys learning from other cultures and discovering how she can incorporate other cultures into her lifestyle.
Barb has been married to her sweetheart since 1985 and has 5 kids, and 12 grandkids. She is an important team member, who works hard to keep Fortress moving forward.
Gerri Guthrie
Retail & Production Manager
Gerri has worked in our production department since November 2021. She grew up in Sitka and has lived here off and on, spending the last 30 years in Utah. Gerri comes from a very creative background! She is a photographer, decorator, crafter and loves make items to sell in Fortress of the Bear’s gift shop. If you’ve purchased an item of clothing in our store or online, Gerri probably made it for you! She loves collaborating with the other staff to create new products. She is very passionate about the bears here at Fortress and is so excited to be part of the growth that is taking place. She loves to chase sunsets and walk around Sitka. She is always taking pictures to share her view of the world - you can see lots of her photos by following G&H Photography! She has been married for 25 years this year to Jesse Guthrie and they have three boys, Jan, Jacob, and J.R. Family is very important to her. She also is excited to spend time with her Sitka family.
Jonté Louis
Lead Keeper
Jonté joined Fortress of the Bear as a summer intern in 2019, and has been with us ever since! We invited her to stay with us as a year-round Bear Keeper, after her internship ended. Over the years, she has worked her way up to our Lead Keeper role, and is now responsible for training and supervising our summer interns.
Outside of work, Jonté has embraced many things Sitka has to offer! She dances ballet with the Sitka Studio of Dance, and swings around on silks and lyra with Sitka Cirque!
Jillian Weisselberg
Bear Keeper 1
Jillian joined Fortress of the Bear in the summer of 2023 as an intern looking to break into the zookeeping industry. She ended up falling in love with the town of Sitka, the people she worked with, and most of all, the bears she had been taking care of all summer. She now gets to see the bears almost every day as our year round Bear Keeper 1! While living in Sitka, Jillian has started to integrate into the community by going to many community events and Sitka Cirque classes. Jillian is excited to be able to work with the bears here at Fortress for many years to come!
Volunteers
Debi Terry
"I began volunteering at Fortress of the Bear in the Spring of 2009 right after moving to Sitka. My favorite bear is Lucky. He is laid back, can easily entertain himself for hours and loves spending time in the water. He also overcame a very serious injury as a young bear and is thriving now. I have had various responsibilities since I began volunteering from cleaning to helping with food prep and enrichment. My favorite things to do are picking wild foods for the bears and telling guests about these remarkable creatures. The most memorable moment I have had was just looking into the eyes of one of the bears and feeling that he was engaged in looking back at me. I hope I can volunteer another 10 years!"
Here's Debi, who also runs a local tour company, Specialized Tours of Sitka.
Kathy Ingallinera
"I started volunteering on Sundays in the summer of 2015. Killisnoo is my favorite bear because he is the "Underdog" and I like to root for him and encourage him, especially when he stands up for himself. He is sweet and just goes about his bear business, which I like. I help in the gift shop, with food prep, cleaning, recycling and telling the visitors about the bears."
Here's Kathy, pictured with her lovely rescue malamute, Bristol!
Board of Directors
Camille Ferguson
FOB Board President
Laurie Booyse
FOB Board Secretary
Lee Bennett
FOB Board Treasurer
Sara Hadad-Dembs
Board Member
Beverly Caldwell
Board Member
Debi Terry
Board Member
Shawna Thornton
Board Member