Board Member
Kevin Killer is a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. He was born May 4, 1979. Kevin is an activist, Native American politician, and former president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. He previously served as a Democratic member of the South Dakota House of Representatives from 2009 to 2017 and the South Dakota Senate from 2017 to 2019, representing the 27th district. He lives in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. In November 2020, he was elected tribal president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. He was defeated during his 2022 re-election bid.
He graduated from Oglala Lakota College.
Kevin was first elected to the state legislature in 2008 where he served on the House State Affairs Committee, which has an important role in moving legislation forward, and its Judicial Affairs Committee. In 2016 he was elected to the State Senate from District 27and in the year prior, 2015, was a Bush Fellow.
He is also director of the Native American Youth Leadership Alliance, a role he began in 2010 and which sees to his working to build youth leaders among the people of the reservations. In 2019, Killer became a senior fellow at Prism. He is noted as being the co-founder of Advance Native Political Leadership, a non-profit that aims to expand indigenous representation in elected and appointed offices across the United States.
He serves on the board of the People for the American Way Foundation, and past service includes, the National Indian Education Association, the Oglala Lakota College Board of Trustees, the Young Elected Officials Network, the Quad Caucus, and the National Caucus Native American State Legislators.
Concurrent to his political work, Kevin has been involved as an actor and executive producer on two short films, Running Shadow and Istinma.