A Foundation f
Photo courtesy of Sen. Sullivan’s Office.
Culver experience grounds Dan Su
Dan Sullivan and his wife Julie Fate-Sullivan (second from left) with their daughters (left to right) Laurel, Isabella, and Meghan.
By Kathe Brunton
I
f Dan Sullivan W’78, ’83 has learned one thing in life, it’s that when opportunity knocks, you don’t peek out the window to see who’s there. Rather, you fling open the door, take a good look, and welcome it in. A glance back at his life lends credence to this philosophy. Start with Sullivan’s most recent achievement: his November election as the junior U.S. senator from Alaska. Before that, he was the Department of Natural Resources commissioner of a state where sixty-five percent of the land is public. A
step earlier, attorney general of the Land of the Midnight Sun under governors Sarah Palin and Sean Parnell. Retreating a bit more in time but a significant distance in geography (4,000 miles), Sullivan served as assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs under Condoleezza Rice in George W. Bush’s White House. That role was preceded by his heading the International Economics Directorate of the National Economic Council and National Security Council staffs at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Sullivan first settled above the fifty-sixth parallel when he practiced law at a private firm in Anchorage after clerking