Jim Lebiedz

Jim Lebiedz is a project manager for the Federal Aviation Administration in the Alaskan Region, Airports Division and a licensed professional civil engineer. He earned his bachelors degree from Villanova University and his masters degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

After graduating from Villanova, Jim was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Navy Civil Engineer Corps and was stationed at McMurdo Station in Antarctica where he served as the engineering officer for Operation Deep Freeze. He later served at the Naval Station at Treasure Island in San Francisco, the Public Works Center in Oakland, the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and as the Resident Officer in Charge on Amchitka Island, part of the Aleutian Islands.

Jim has lived and worked in Alaska for the past nine years. He has worked as a board member and chairman of the construction committee for the Habitat for Humanity affiliate in Anchorage; is a certified Emergency Medical Technician; an instructor and board member of the Alaska Sea Kayaking Symposium; and Executive Officer of the Alaska Disaster Medical Assistance Team. In May of 1996, he was chosen as the Federal Employee of the Year for Community Service by the Anchorage Federal Executive Association for his volunteer efforts.

Jim has been a photographer for most of his life, but began taking photography more seriously as a result of traveling around Alaska for work and pleasure and being continuously awed by the grandeur and beauty of the 49th state. Besides photography, he enjoys hiking, biking, camping, kayaking, cross country skiing and his mostly Newfoundland dog, Shadow.

He visited McNeil river for the first time in August 1996.