Psychology alumna named Small Business Person of the Year
by Matt Jardin |
This week marks National Small Business Week, a celebration of the innovation and resilience that small business owners bring to their communities every day. Perfectly encapsulating that spirit is psychology alumna Christine Hopkins, CEO and majority owner of the ASCI family of companies and the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2025 .
Hopkins didn’t always see herself as a business leader. As a self-described military brat who moved often, she eventually landed in Alaska during middle school, later graduating high school overseas before returning to the state she proudly calls home. Inspired by the character Clarice Starling — an FBI agent on the hunt for a serial killer — from the iconic psychological horror film The Silence of the Lambs, she initially pursued a degree in psychology with a minor in criminal justice at UAA. But wanting a family and realizing the demanding, often grim nature of a career in forensic psychology, she pivoted toward a safer — yet surprisingly aligned — field: human resources.
“Thankfully, there’s a lot of overlap between the two,” joked Hopkins. “HR is all about psychology when it really comes down to it; understanding how people work and how to best help them develop into the best they can be.”
After graduating from UAA, Hopkins’ early career took her from Nordstrom, where she worked during school, to youth shelter nonprofit Covenant House, where she briefly considered a path in social work. It was there that she discovered her calling in HR, building her career by taking on increasingly challenging roles at companies facing internal issues before being invited to interview for a new position at ASCI by then-CEO Scott Hawkins.
ASCI, short for Advanced Supply Chain International, is a supply chain management company that helps clients manage, buy, store and move their materials. Hopkins’ entry into ASCI wasn’t a straightforward application process. Initially hesitant to step into a position that combined the seemingly contradictory responsibilities of an HR director and a general manager, she only agreed to interview after encouragement from a longtime recruiter friend. During their coffee meeting, Hopkins asked Hawkins point-blank whether he actually knew what he wanted from the position. His answer resonated with her: “I own a service company. We provide people to provide a service, and I need somebody that understands people. I can teach the operations.”
Hopkins soon became Hawkins’ successor. But shortly after, the company faced its most daunting challenge yet. When COVID-19 hit, ASCI, heavily reliant on the oil and gas sector, teetered on the brink of collapse.
“It was a lot of sleepless nights,” recalled Hopkins. “We were on the cusp of going out of business. We took the company through a partial liquidation, let all the other non-working owners walk away and restructured as a woman-owned small business. Honestly, it was working with the team with 100% transparency and a lot of humility.”
That bold move transitioned ASCI into the lucrative federal contracting space, winning two contracts and turning the company profitable for the first time since the pandemic. Additionally, ASCI has become more nimble and diversified, no longer pigeonholed in oil and gas. Hopkins credits this success largely to her core philosophy: “Treat people like people.” She believes in assuming the best intentions from her team, asking first whether there’s anything leadership can do to help employees succeed. Sometimes the best someone can do isn’t enough — but leadership’s job is to help bridge that gap when possible.
“We’re all humans with families and commitments outside of work,” said Hopkins. “Being able to see employees become a better version of themselves is my favorite part of the job.”
Key to that philosophy, Hopkins still draws from the lessons she learned as a psychology student at UAA, particularly in understanding what motivates people. That grounding has shaped her leadership style, marked by transparency, humility and a drive to lift others up. Furthermore, collaborating — both on an interpersonal and community level — is not just a business value, but a deeply personal one, inspired by the cooperation required to thrive in a place as isolated as Alaska. For Hopkins, it is our responsibility to build up the next generation, which for her means sharing the lessons she’s learned and supporting the communities ASCI operates in, both in Alaska and across the country.
Being named the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2025 Small Business Person of the Year for the State of Alaska feels especially meaningful to Hopkins, who remembers moving back to Alaska at 19 with just three suitcases, one semester’s worth of tuition and three months’ rent. Fittingly, she will be in Washington, D.C. this week to coincide with National Small Business Week.
“To have gone from that to where I am today, and to be recognized for the efforts we went through to get here, it’s pretty amazing,” she said.
