Megan Red Shirt-Shaw | Keynote Speaker

Megan Red Shirt-Shaw (Oglala Lakota) is an inspiring educator, writer, and researcher in Higher Education. Passionate about Indigenous rights issues, college admissions, and greater Native presence in media and higher education, Megan believes in empowering young people to use their voices for the issues they care about in their communities. A powerful speaker, she has presented at colleges and universities as well as conferences nationwide.

Megan is currently the Director of Native Student Services at the University of South Dakota. She has held positions in undergraduate admissions, college counseling, and student advising at the University of Pennsylvania, Questbridge, Santa Clara University, Albuquerque Academy, and the 7th Gen Summer Program.

Megan's writings have been featured on Huffington Post, ThinkProgress, Racialicious, Model View Culture, and Last Real Indians. She is the founder of Natives In America, an online literary publication for Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian youth.

She earned her Bachelor’s from the University of Pennsylvania in English and her Master's from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Higher Education where she was co-chair of FIERCE — Future Indigenous Educators Resisting Colonial Education. Megan is currently pursuing her PhD in Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development with a focus on Higher Education and a minor in American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota.

Her favorite phrase her mother ever taught her in Lakota is “Weksuye, Ciksuye, Miksuye” meaning “I remember, I remember you, Remember me.”