History of the Nuka Conference

With the 15^th anniversary of Southcentral Foundation’s Nuka System of Care Conference coming this year, we’d like to take a moment to reflect on how it all began.

In 2011, SCF received our first Malcolm Baldrige National Quality award, and this led to increased interest in the Nuka System of Care. People from around the world began contacting SCF to request tours and for information about a variety of subjects. The inquiries ranged in topics from our integrated primary care teams to workforce development to data collection and usage to improvement and innovation. These questions were handled by a department that would later become the Learning Institute, which at the time was staffed by two people who would answer questions and coordinate tours of SCF’s campus.

As a Baldrige recipient, SCF is required to share best practices. Additionally, it soon became clear that interest in SCF’s Nuka System of Care was greater than what could be handled by a two-person department, and SCF was faced with a choice: either expand opportunities for people to learn about our system of care, or turn people away. So we began hosting the annual Nuka System of Care conference, beginning in the summer of 2011.

However, we did not want this to be the same as conferences put on by other organizations. We weave our culture throughout the conference, giving attendees the opportunity to learn and experience it at the same time as they learn about the more technical aspects of the system. And we cap the conference attendance at 200 to ensure that we have the opportunity to get to know attendees and learn from them even as they learn from us.

During the COVID pandemic, we launched the Virtual Nuka Conference as an option for people to learn about SCF when physical travel was difficult or impossible. Since then, we’ve kept the Virtual Nuka Conference going as a lower-cost option for organizations and individuals who may not be able to afford to travel to Alaska.

This year, we will celebrate the 15^th anniversary of the Nuka System of Care Conference, and we will offer both the Virtual Nuka Conference (Feb. 11-13, 2026), as well as the in-person Nuka Conference (June 22-26, 2026) at our campus in Anchorage, Alaska. For more information about either conference, or on any aspect of SCF’s Nuka System of Care, feel free to contact the SCF Learning Institute.