Nick Tilsen is a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation. He is the president and Chief Executive Officer of NDN Collective, an Indigenous-led organization dedicated for building Indigenous power, through organizing, activism, philanthropy, grantmaking, capacity-building and narrative change, we are creating sustainable solutions on Indigenous terms.^[1]

In 2012, Nick was known by President Barack Obama at the White House Tribal Nations Conference:

He is also a recipient of the 2018 Bush Foundation Fellow.

Nick Tilsen is a native of the Ogalala Lakota Nation. He was born into activism. His parents, Mark Tilsen and Joann Tall, met during the American Indian Movement (AIM) standoff with the federal government at Wounded Knee in 1973 and in later years, gained recognition for social entrepreneurship and Environmentalism.

His grandfather, Ken, was a civil-rights lawyer who, along with his wife Rachel (daughter of renown leftist writer Meridel Le Sueur), defended the AIM activists in their fight over treaty and civil rights. Tilsen grew up between Minnesota and South Dakota and decided as a teenager to take up the family torch and run with it — right back to his roots on the reservation.^[6]

Nick Tilsen has over 18 years of experience building place-based innovations that have the ability to inform systems change solutions around climate resiliency, sustainable housing and equitable community development. He founded NDN Collective to scale these place-based solutions while building needed philanthropic, social impact investment, capacity and advocacy Infrastructure geared towards building the collective power of Indigenous Peoples.^[2]

Prior to launching NDN Collective, he was the founding executive director of Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation for 12 years in Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota to cultivate a new generation of American Indian leaders. He has played a vital role in creating a community development organization that is working with the local grassroots people and national organizations in the development of a sustainable regenerative community, that creates jobs, builds homes and creates new opportunity on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.^[4]

Tilsen built place-based innovations that have the ability to inform systems change solutions around climate resiliency, sustainable housing and equitable community development.

He sits on the boards of the Indigenous Peoples Power Project, the Water Protector Legal Collective, and helped with on the ground organizing in the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline in Standing Rock.^[3]

Since 2013 Nick has served as a local point of contact for President Obama’s Ladders of Opportunity Initiative, working to make targeted investments into America’s poorest communities. This Community based grassroots work has led Tilsen to become a National leader in the Equity Movement.

Tilsen has received numerous fellowships and awards.^[5]