Murkowski Welcomes New Hires and Summer Interns to Committee Staff
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, today announced that Spencer Nelson has joined her Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee staff and that Abigail Hemenway has joined the committee’s non-designated staff. She also welcomed four summer interns who are assisting the committee with various projects this summer – Lauren Eckl, Kaiwi Eisenhour, Alexander Jackstadt, and Nathan Solorio – and noted her appreciation for the time Samuel Burgess spent interning during the month of May.
“I am very pleased to have Spencer join our team, as he brings a wealth of knowledge on important issues and will be a great asset as we focus on the modernization of our energy policies,” Murkowski said. “I am also excited to welcome Abigail and our great group of interns, who will assist the committee with various projects throughout the summer.”
Nelson joins the committee as a professional staff member focusing on energy innovation, including nuclear energy. He comes to the committee after four years at ClearPath, where he was a policy program director. Prior to that he conducted research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Nelson has bachelor’s degrees in Environmental Science and Quantitative Biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Hemenway joins the non-designated committee staff after working as an Arctic program assistant and administrative aide at the North Star Group. She earned a bachelor’s degree in political science at the University of Miami and is originally from Juneau, Alaska.
Solorio, a legal intern, is pursuing a law degree at Willamette University. Prior to law school, he served as legislative correspondent and grants coordinator for Murkowski’s personal office in Washington, DC. Solorio is from Anchorage, Alaska and graduated from the University of Alaska Anchorage in 2015.
Burgess served the committee as a legal intern in May 2019, before joining the Coast Guard’s JAG internship program for the remainder of the summer, and is pursuing a law degree at Cornell Law School. Burgess is from Anchorage, Alaska and graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 2016.
Eckl, a college intern, is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in political science with a minor in business from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She also served the Senate as a high school page in the summer of 2015.
Eisenhour, a college intern, is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in chemistry at Weber State University. This marks his second summer with the committee. Eisenhour was born in Alaska and raised in Hawaii.
Jackstadt, a college intern, recently graduated with honors from the University of Alaska Anchorage with a bachelor’s degree in economics and was a member of the university’s hockey team. Jackstadt is from Anchorage, Alaska, and graduated from East Anchorage High School in 2012.
