Ms.Elsie Meeks

Director
Joined Northwest Area Foundation: December 2005


Elsie Meeks is the state director of the USDA Rural Development in South Dakota, a post to which she was named by the Obama Administration on July 27, 2009.  She coordinates the efforts of 72 employees to work with others to ensure resources and more than 40 programs are serving rural South Dakota residents. Through her leadership, communities and rural residents will have the opportunity to develop and grow while also improving their quality of life.  

Meeks has several years of experience working to promote economic and community development. Prior to joining USDA, Meeks was the President/CEO of First Nations Oweesta Corporation, a Native asset- and wealth-building organization. She has over 20 years experience working for Native community economic development.

Before her leadership and work at Oweesta, Meeks was active in the development and management of The Lakota Funds, a small business and microenterprise development loan fund community development financial institution (CDFI) on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.  She served as chairperson of The Lakota Funds and was a board member of Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED), Council on Foundations and the Oglala Sioux Tribe Partnership for Housing. She was also an International Advisory Council member of Native Nations Institute and served on the Board of Governors for the Honoring Nations program of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development. 

Meeks completed a six-year term on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, the first Native American to serve on the Commission. She also was the chairperson for the Native Financial Education Coalition, for which Oweesta served as the lead organization.

Meeks and her husband, Jim, make their home on their ranch near Kyle, S.D. on the Pine Ridge Reservation.