I was born in Dillingham, Alaska and raised in a household that spoke Yup'ik. I fished there commercially for salmon and herring for more than twenty years and was a longtime chairman of the board of Choggiung Ltd., the Alaska Native village corporation for the communities of Dillingham, Ekuk, and Portage Creek. I was honored to receive my degree in Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Alaska, Anchorage.

An Alaska state legislator since 2007, I was elected to be the first Alaska Native Speaker of the House from 2017 to 2021, leading the only bipartisan coalition of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents in the United States. I then served as the House Rules Committee Chairman and a member of the House Finance Committee in the 32nd Legislature. In my current role as House Finance Co-Chair in charge of the Capital Budget, I prioritized critical areas of importance to rural Alaska: Energy, Education, Public Safety, Housing, and critical infrastructure like Broadband, our Fisheries, and Water & Sewer.