Human Rights Commission quietly fires director

The Alaska State Commission for Human Rights has confirmed firing its executive director in July, after she had been on the job for less than a month, but the commission continues to say little about it.

The vote to remove Marilyn Stewart continues a period of turmoil for the commission going back months.

Under Alaska’s Human Rights Law, the Human Rights Commission oversees investigations of various types of discrimination and seeks to remedy them. It reports directly to the Governor’s Office. Six of the seven commissioners currently serving are appointees of Governor Mike Dunleavy.

Stewart is a former director of the Municipality of Anchorage’s Office of Equal Opportunity and, last fall, a Republican candidate for state House. After losing the election, she worked for Governor Dunleavy’s office, before she was hired as the Human Rights Commission’s executive director.

Read more: https://www.alaskapublic.org/2019/08/09/human-rights-commission-quietly-fires-director/