Southcentral Foundation’s Nuka Learning Institute
4085 Tudor Centre Drive
Anchorage, Alaska 99508
For information about consulting and events, please contact (907) 729-NUKA (6852) or SCFNukaEvent@scf.cc
For information about student opportunities, please visit https://www.southcentralfoundation.com/careers/nuka-learning-program/ or call (907) 729-6800.
Southcentral Foundation
For information about Southcentral Foundation’s health and wellness programs and services, please visit
www.southcentralfoundation.com or call (907) 729-4955
Population-Based Care Management: Improving Health and Controlling Costs
One method Southcentral Foundation uses to both control costs and improve community health is population-based care management. One of the main ways SCF achieves this is through nurse case management, where registered nurses work as part of SCF’s Integrated Care Teams to support customer-owners in achieving wellness.
Southcentral Foundation Receives Three Community Health Quality Recognition Badges
As part of its efforts to provide comprehensive healthcare in the region it serves, Southcentral Foundation operates 17 Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). An FQHC is defined as “a community-based health care provider that receives federal funding to provide comprehensive primary care services to underserved populations.”(1) 15 of the FQHCs SCF operates are located in rural Alaska, while two are located in Anchorage.
Three Key Elements of Southcentral Foundation’s Integrated Care Teams
Southcentral Foundation’s integrated care teams are built on strong relationships, shared accountability, and customer-owner leadership. By working together and listening to customer-owners, teams provide coordinated, whole-person care that reflects the needs and priorities of the communities they serve.
Southcentral Foundation’s Strategic Planning Playbook
The Strategic Planning Playbook details how to build and implement a strategic planning process at an organization. It is based on SCF’s process but can be adapted to fit the unique needs of any organization.
Leadership Development and Succession Planning
Southcentral Foundation has implemented a Leadership Development and Succession Planning System. This supports SCF in growing its own leaders to ensure continuity of leadership that supports SCF’s vision and mission.
Supporting Complex Needs Through Intensive Case Management
As part of its mission of working together with the Native Community to achieve wellness through health and related services, Southcentral Foundation employs an Intensive Case Management (ICM) team, which is a community-based program offering support to customer-owners ages 18 and older who experience underlying behavioral health challenges causing difficulties in daily living.
What I Learned in Anchorage: Putting Relationship at the Centre of Care
Sarah Yardley is an Associate Professor of Palliative Medicine at University College London and a Winston Churchill Fellow. She attended SCF’s Nuka System of Care Conference in 2025 and has written the following blog based on her experience. We are honored to share her thoughts with you.
Improvement Insight: Immunization Completion
To address the decrease in childhood immunization rates, SCF’s improvement team, and medical and operational leaders convened and began reviewing data on childhood vaccinations.
History of the Nuka Conference
With the 15th 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.
Improvement Insights: Blood Pressure Control
Through a needs assessment done by Southcentral Foundation, cardiovascular disease was identified as one of the greatest health concerns of Alaska Native people. In response to not meeting the 75th percentile goal for the “Controlling High Blood Pressure” Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) measure, SCF formed a workgroup to determine ways to make improvements to blood pressure control for customer-owners.