David B. Leslie

David Leslie is a queer Iñupiaq activist and environmental contractor from Fairbanks, Alaska. His mother was born in Kotzebue and was raised in Fairbanks by his white adoptive grandparents, Chuck and Carol Leslie; his biological grandfather was John Schaeffer, the first president and CEO of NANA. Leslie was born in Bogalusa, Louisiana, and moved to Fairbanks as an infant. He became politically active at 16 as vice president of the Gay-Straight Alliance at Lathrop High School, participated in Occupy Fairbanks, served as a union steward for the Fairbanks Pioneer Home, and sits on the board of the Northern Alaska Environmental Center. He was a summer VISTA volunteer for the North Star Community Foundation in 2018 and identifies with the Democratic Socialist wing of the Democratic Party.