MORE ABOUT SPEAKER CATHY TILTON

I am a lifelong Alaskan who grew up in Anchorage and have lived in the MatSu for over 30 years. While growing up in Anchorage, I spent many of my weekends and summers with my grandparents in Chugiak learning skills like hunting and fishing and the importance of hard work and commitment. After graduating from Service High School, I earned a certificate in Accounting and Travel from Alaska Business College. In 1980, I moved to Big Lake where I began working for a local law firm and started my family. Later, I went to work for the Mayor of Wasilla soon after the City had been designated a first-class city. After that, her and her family started several successful small businesses that employ dozens of Alaskans around the MatSu. Prior to being elected herself, she was legislative staff for a Senator and Representative who were members of the MatSu delegation. Over her first four terms, she has served as Chair of the Community and Regional Affairs Committee where she helped Alaska’s municipalities navigate the uncertainties of the marijuana initiative. She spent two terms as a member of the House Finance Committee where she championed a new spending cap to the constitution and proposed dozens of budget cuts. Immediately before being elected Speaker of the House, Rep. Tilton was the leader of the Republican House Minority. In January 2023, she was elected as the 23rd Speaker of the Alaska State House. She is the fourth woman elected to the position, the second elected from the MatSu and the first Republican Speaker from the MatSu. She is chair of the Committee on Committees, Vice-Chair of the Rules Committee and a member of the Ways and Means and Arctic Policy, Economic Development and Tourism committees.