Erik Olds was born and raised in Adak Island at the end of the Aleutians in Alaska. Today he's the Deputy Manager of the Oak Ridge Site for the Office of Environmental Management. Read more about his Alaska experiences and how they've shaped his career.
March 22, 2024
minute read time
The Arctic Energy Office is hosting a series of interviews to highlight the lives and achievements of some of DOE’s outstanding employees with Arctic and Alaskan connections. Today meet Erik Olds, who was born and raised on Adak Island at the end of the Aleutians, and now works as the Deputy Manager at the Office of Environmental Management’s Oak Ridge site. If you're a Department of Energy employee and have Alaska connections or know someone at DOE who does, please connect at [email protected] so we can feature you in future editions.
When did you live in Alaska?
I was born and raised in Alaska, on Adak Island at the end of the Aleutians. At the time there was an early warning Naval station there which was built during the Cold War when tensions were higher with the Soviet Union. My parents worked for the first national bank in Alaska and there was a branch there, and my parents viewed it as an adventure to live on Adak. Because of this, I was not born in a hospital, but in a Naval Dispensary on Adak!
I lived in Adak until I was ten years old when I moved to Juneau, then to Haines, and finally to Anchorage, Alaska where I attended high school. This is the largest city in Alaska, and I thought of it as the ‘big city’. I grew up in the Turnagain area of Anchorage where I worked at a bush plane guide service at Lake Hood. After I graduated from West High School, I spent some time in the military before returning to Alaska for one year of college.
What are your favorite memories of Alaska?
Everywhere I lived in Alaska, I lived near the ocean. The marine environment there is the most diverse and the most special, so I loved always being on the water. Even in Anchorage, they had a lot of moose, and I would ride my bike to work every day just to experience being with nature because where else can you see a 1200 lb. animal (a moose) eating a tree in your front yard every morning? Growing up in Alaska was just an amazing experience, it is a truly a place that feels like home when you grow up there. It evokes memories of the outdoors and has so much natural beauty. It’s just a place that sticks with you. To this day, it’s still hard for me to be inside for long periods of time. I like to be outside, preferably walking or hiking.
When did you start working at the Department of Energy?
After the military I returned to Alaska and started school at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA), but I wanted to do more exploring since I hadn’t left Alaska until I joined the Army. So, I transferred to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) in Nevada where I met my wife who I’ve been married to for 30 years now. There I finished my undergraduate degree in public relations, and while the major opportunities in front of me were to work for a PR firm or the gaming industry but neither of these were what I really wanted to do. My wife’s father worked at DOE at the time at the Nevada Test Site and suggested that I look into government work, and I went on to work for a project at the Test Site. It was amazing work. The government does so much more in providing information, building relationships, and public affairs – it was all there, and it was a fantastic experience. I was able to get my masters degree while working for DOE at the Test Site.
What do you do now at DOE?
I ended up working at the Nevada Test Site for quite a few years, then chose to move to the Pacific Northwest to work at Hanford. I was intrigued that Hanford was part of the Office of Environmental Management and the Manhattan Project, but I really didn’t know much more about the site and area before I moved there. I loved working at Hanford and stayed for over twenty years, raising my children in the Tri Cities. More recently I wanted to continue to experience all parts of the program beyond field work, so I moved to DC to work as the Director of Public Affairs in the Office of Environmental Management. Not long ago the opportunity to move to Oak Ridge as the Deputy Manager presented itself, which is where I am now. I have had the opportunity to do so many interesting things in my career, from helping to manage multibillion dollar projects to my current position as the deputy manager at one of the most important clean-up sites in the complex.
How did your time in the Arctic shape who you are today?
I think you have to have a sense of adventure. In a place like the Department of Energy you get to do the most wonderful and unique things, and work with some of the most talented people you can imagine. You have to be willing to go different places and try different things. Sometimes it’s using muscles you haven’t used in a few years, sometimes it’s building new skills. I think that sense of adventure comes from Alaska.
What do you love about your job?
Everywhere I go I meet amazing people and I always learn from them. You should always be in a situation where you’re learning and growing, and it’s important to get yourself out of that box and develop different skills. It’s the people and the opportunities to learn that make DOE a great place to work. The things that the department does – even outside of the rich history of the Office of Environmental Management – one person can’t learn it all, but I’d certainly like to try. Everyone should always try to be a lifelong learner if you can. If you always have that zest for discovery, some places you’ll expect to go, and opportunities will present themselves in ways you might not expect.
How does your time in the Arctic impact your perspectives at DOE?
I like to bring that sense of adventure to how I work in addition to where I work – you have to be bold sometimes and decisive and my time in Alaska helped with that. Procedures don’t get things done, processes don’t get things done, people get things done. In my time in Alaska, it felt like a tight knit community. It’s diverse, but there’s two types of people – Alaskans and non-Alaskans, and you did your time until you proved you could live in Alaska. I like to bring this perspective to my work – knowing how to build relationships, build teams, and to work with all kinds of people.