Kendell has played a pivotal role in my professional journey. Her exceptional ability to build environments where participants feel both supported and safe has been instrumental in enabling us to engage in the emotionally challenging work of critically reflecting on our pedagogical practices. The impact of the workshops and training sessions she has led extends beyond mere education – they have been truly transformative for my teaching and the way that I want to exist in the world.
– Mareca Guthrie, PhD
Kendell Newman Sadiik is a writer, educator, community advocate and organizer based in Fairbanks, Alaska. She earned her Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where she has held leadership roles in online learning and faculty development for the last ten years. Working at the intersection of strategy, pedagogy, and community partnership, she has helped translate emerging ideas into sustainable learning initiatives across the university.
Throughout her leadership in higher education, she has designed and led institution-wide programs that advance innovative, inclusive, and student-centered teaching. She has worked on a broad range of initiatives, including workshops on Indigenizing Pedagogy and Imagining Alternative Futures for Higher Education, courses on digital storytelling, ethical and inclusive pedagogy, and Universal Design for Learning, and dialogue-based seminars on critically reflective pedagogy and the evolving role of artificial intelligence in education. Across these efforts and more, she is known for building collaborative learning spaces that center care, inquiry, and shared power.
Kendell is a co-founder and long-time collaborator in the Learning Inside Out Network (LION), a statewide initiative expanding education and art-making opportunities for justice-impacted Alaskans. Through LION, she has helped publish writing by incarcerated authors, facilitated courses inside carceral facilities, and partnered with educators, artists, and technologists to develop new models for learning. She is currently co-designing Lil’ Windows, a video game that explores incarceration through literacy, social connection, and collective problem-solving.
In 2025–26, Kendell is a National Arts Futures Fellow, part of the inaugural cohort facilitated by Creative West in partnership with South Arts. The fellowship supports arts and culture leaders advancing more just and vibrant futures through community-rooted action projects, mentorship, and peer learning. Her essays and short fiction have appeared in Grist, Iron Horse Literary Review, and Jabberwock Review, among others. Across her creative and professional work, she is guided by a driving question: What else is possible?