Our Staff

Tetyana has extensive experience in business leadership as a business owner for over 20 years. Additionally, she has held the titles of CFO, COO, HR Director, General Manager, and President. Before immigrating from Kharkiv, Ukraine, to Alaska, Tetyana earned a master’s in accounting and auditing. Tetyana has also written and managed both CSS and federal grants. As one of the founders, along with her husband, of the Ukraine Relief Program, Tetyana worked tirelessly to help Ukrainians when the war broke out; in 2023, she founded Project Alaska Inc., focusing on statewide workforce development.

As the program leader, Tetyana provides daily support for staff, clients, and overseas operations. She utilizes her extensive network of business contacts to develop employment opportunities and relationships with Alaska businesses for the program and its clients.

Born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Oksana Gillespie moved to Alaska in 2007 on a J1 visa. In 2013, Oksana opened the first and only Slavic preschool in Anchorage, “Slavic Educational Center-Oomnichka,” which she sold in 2019. She has a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education and was an early volunteer as the Ukraine Relief Program was being formed, working on outreach, fundraising, and logistics. Later, she became an employee working as a case manager and sponsor relations specialist, where her duties included outsourcing and matching refugees with sponsors, processing U4U applications, and other client-related services. Oksana left her position to take some time to heal after her brother was killed defending Kharkiv in September 2022.

Oksana’s background, personal experiences, education, deep knowledge of the Anchorage Slavic and business community, and her work as a contract interpreter make her a valuable Career Coach for Project Alaska’s clients.

Born in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, Alyona Lujan moved to Alaska in 2019. As a trained journalist, television, and film director when Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014, Alyona traveled to the frontlines. She covered the conflict as a reporter, producing multiple documentaries. She volunteered and worked with refugees from Donetsk and Luhansk, organized children’s camps, provided art therapy for refugee children, and was part of the “Yellow Bus” project, which provided trauma therapy for teens. Alyona was an early volunteer with the Ukraine Relief Program, helping to fundraise and collect humanitarian aid. Alyona and her husband Chris have sponsored 23 Ukrainians in their relocation to Alaska.

Alyona worked as an on-call interpreter with the Ukraine Relief Program in 2022. Ayona is a massive asset to Project Alaska, with a deep knowledge of Ukrainian culture; she understands firsthand the challenges of those who have arrived and is qualified in trauma aid.