Raina Thiele

Raina Thiele serves as Senior Advisor for Alaska Affairs and Strategic Priorities to Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland. In this role, she serves as the Department of the Interior’s policy lead on issues related to Alaska’s public lands, tribal relations, the arctic, and international Indigenous issues. She is the first Alaska Native to serve in this role. Raina has spent her career in public service, the private sector, and the nonprofit sector. She previously served as President Obama’s tribal liaison and led planning for President Obama’s historic 2015 trip to Alaska. She also served for nearly five years in the White House Office of Management and Budget, where she focused on a range of tribal, international, and energy issues. She has served on the boards of the Arctic Economic Council, the Verizon Consumer Advisory Board, and the Environmental Law Institute’s Environmental Justice Advisory Council. She is a first generation college student who earned her bachelor’s degree from Yale College and her master in public policy degree from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Raina was born and raised in Alaska and her family hails from Pedro Bay Village on Lake Iliamna and Alexander Creek near Mt Susitna. She is Dena’ina Athabascan and Yup’ik of the Tulchina (water) clan.