Laura Albright, 45, executive director of the Alaska Fine Arts Academy, was named the Outstanding Businesswoman of the Year at the Mrs. Alaska-America pageant in Anchorage July 7.
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Albright
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Albright moved to Alaska with her son, Marcello Mazzoleni, now 16, from Arizona three years ago to take a job as a flight attendant with Alaska Airlines and to be closer to her brother, an Anchorage firefighter.
Prior to that, she said, she ran restaurants and was a restaurant consultant.
“I turned businesses around,” she said, “making ones that weren't profitable profitable.”
As the academy's executive director, she has been full time for a year, and prior to that, she was part-time in the position for six months.
Albright said her role encompasses many things.
“I do everything,” she said. “Honestly, I do janitorial to advertising. I do the bookkeeping, I do all the class planning, all the coordinating for teachers and payroll. I honestly do everything.”
Linda Coy, the past-president of the Alaska Fine Arts Academy, said they needed someone really dynamic in the position, and Albright fit right in.
“She has just worked so hard and really put a lot of herself into the program and has made it so things happen. She's not one to wait around at all. She just takes charge and moves forward,” said Coy.
This has included moving the academy from the Carrs Mall to a space over Alaska Industrial Hardware, which includes theater space, where the academy has been able to hold local productions.
Coy said she gave the Mrs. Alaska-America pageant paperwork to Albright and told her, “You could be Mrs. Alaska.”
“As a businesswoman, she deserved her award,” said Coy.
Albright, a Peters Creek resident, met her husband, Michael, a firefighter with the Anchorage Fire Department, after moving here.
Albright is on leave from Alaska Airlines and plans to return, but for now, she said she's plenty busy with the academy.
Reach the reporter at sally.foo@alaskastar.com.
