The executive director of Alaska’s largest seafood marketing firm announced on Friday she’s stepping down.

Alexa Tonkovich, head of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, will resign to pursue a master’s degree, ASMI announced in a Friday release.

“After nine years at ASMI, the timing felt right to further my education and prepare myself for wherever the next steps in my career may lead,” Tonkovich said in a prepared release.

Tonkovich will stay on through mid-December to assist with recruitment. She has led the agency since 2015.

ASMI is a public-private partnership funded by a small tax on seafood landings and the State of Alaska. The state zeroed out ASMI’s state funding from its 2019 budget. State funding for the institute (above the fish tax) has declined in the past five years from $7.8 million to zero.

• Contact reporter Kevin Gullufsen at 523-2228 and kgullufsen@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @KevinGullufsen.