LEAD South Dakota Board of Directors

The LEAD Board of Directors consists of passionate community leaders dedicated to expanding the number of women and minorities in elected office in the state of South Dakota. The board believes solutions to tough problems come from diverse voices working together. Our Board of Directors are seasoned community leaders with years of experience in politics, non-profits and business. Their unique set of skills has created a community of educated activists and political candidates.

Susan Kroger has 15 years of nonprofit experience and has served in leadership positions in several organizations in South Dakota. She holds a master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling from the University of Northern Iowa and is currently completing a doctoral degree in Sociology from South Dakota State University. She spent six years as a therapist working with young mothers and families.

Most recently, Susan co-founded LEAD (Leaders Engaged and Determined) South Dakota to train and mobilize hundreds of women toward political action following the 2016 election of Donald Trump. As a steering committee member, Susan is responsible for organizing, creating, and leading trainings on activism, media, and state legislative operations.

Susan enjoys helping nonprofits get off the ground and has consulted with several local organizations on development and strategic planning. Her research interests include gender and policy and social movements. Other interests include telescopes, design, and tacos. She lives in Sioux Falls with her six-year-old daughter and five-year-old son.

Laura Renée Chandler, PhD, is the Director of the Center for Diversity and Community at the University of South Dakota. Previously, she was an Assistant Professor of History at South Dakota State University, specializing in US history, women’s history, and African American Studies. She has a BA in Political Science from Macalester College in St. Paul, MN and MA and PhD in History from Rice University in Houston, TX.

Dr. Chandler educates students about the histories of marginalized groups to foster solidarity, empathy, and self-empowerment. In addition to writing and teaching, she frequently presents on issues dealing with race, social justice, and social movement history. Her TEDx talk entitled, “Silence Will Not Save You: Mobilizing Against Hateful Ignorance,” addresses how a racist and violent anonymous online attack against her forced her to reconsider her commitment to bringing African American Studies to a traditionally white university in rural South Dakota. This experience bolstered her determination to help turn her community into a space where difference is not only appreciated but embraced. Dr. Chandler was also one of the featured speakers at the 2018 Sioux Falls Women’s March, where she focused on the importance of African American women as a voting constituency and the need to build political movements that are unequivocal in denouncing racism and injustice. In collaboration with the SDSU Multicultural Affairs Office, Dr. Chandler invited Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin, to Brookings, SD for a presentation that focused on reconciliation and community solidarity. As a first-generation college graduate, she believes strongly in the power of education to improve our lives and transform the society in which we live.

Kari is invested in gender equality and Native American rights affecting this region’s indigenous people. As an allied health care professional, she is concerned with both education and health care in South Dakota. Kari has served as a member of DSU’s diversity committee for 3 years.

She is a former rugby player, passionate about encouraging girls to participate in sports, and promotes exercise as a lifestyle for all ages. Kari is the mother of two young boys, a Jack Russell named Floyd, and wife to a supportive and hard-working husband. They live in Chester, SD where they enjoy hunting, fishing, and the outdoors.

Roxanne is a lifelong South Dakota resident, who grew up in Mitchell before moving various places around the state during college, graduate school, and everything between and after. She also spent time in Washington, DC, interning for Senator John Thune, and studied abroad in both Mexico and Guatemala.

She graduated from SDSU in 2008 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Broadcast Journalism, Political Science, and Spanish. She then graduated from USD in 2013 with a Juris Doctorate, and a Master of Arts in Political Science. She worked at the Legislative Research Council from 2013 until 2016, staffing several committees, drafting hundreds of bills, and researching various topics through the year. She currently serves as the Chief Deputy State’s Attorney for Hughes County, prosecuting in the magistrate and juvenile courts.

She lives with her husband Austin and an embarrassing number of cats in Pierre, SD. She and Austin are avid travelers, enthusiastic foodies, and regular seekers and consumers of things they cannot get in Pierre. She serves as the Programming and Education Chair of the Board of Directors of LEAD.

Taneeza is a second generation American, Muslim born to immigrant parents from Bangladesh. Her passion to educate others about the religion of Islam started when she was in high school, while her passion to defend the civil rights of immigrant, Muslim, and marginalized communities came to life after graduating from law school in 2008.

As the Civil Rights Director for the Council on American Islamic Relations – MN Chapter, she provided direct legal services and spearheaded efforts for large-scaled impact. She led her team to file the first complaint of discrimination, of any civil rights organization in MN, with the federal Department of Education on behalf of Somali, Muslim high school students who faced ongoing harassment and bullying.

She also initiated an employment mediation with the federal EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunities Commission) to accommodate the religious practice of fasting and breaking fast at sunset in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan for over 500 employees in a poultry processing plant, who had denied these rights.

Taneeza’s most empowering case involved a Somali Muslim student at the U of M headed to medical school, accused of student misconduct – being too loud in the library and uncooperative with law enforcement. Her case hinged on “mistaken identity.” Without representation she faced the possibility of losing her scholarship to medical school. She is now a physician in MN.

In addition to legal services, Taneeza immediately recognized the need to educate employers about their Muslim employee’s religious needs. She developed and instituted Diversity Trainings for employers. Participants included school districts, The Mayo Clinic, Macy’s Inc, University of MN Police Department, Coloplast, and Walmart.

Taneeza’s work from 2008-2011 at CAIR-MN was completely voluntary as the fledging organization had no funds. Today CAIR-MN is one of the leading civil rights organizations in MN with four full time staff. During this same timeframe, Taneeza’s “day job” was a Complaint Investigator for the Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights. Eighty percent of casework involved employment discrimination, ten percent police misconduct.

In 2012, Taneeza was recognized for her work from the MN Council of Foundations and awarded a Facing Race Ambassador Award-Honorable Mention.

After moving to Sioux Falls, SD in 2012 with her son and husband, Taneeza started her private immigration law practice and received a Bush Foundation Leadership Fellowship in 2013. Through this fellowship she assessed issues around “access to legal service” for our most indigent and vulnerable clients. Having attended legal incubator conferences and developing relationships with legal incubators across the country, she developed an innovative model specific for SD culture and needs. The Collaborative Legal Incubator Program’s mission is to provide access to legal systems for vulnerable and modest mean clients by training new solo practitioners how to build sustainable and socially conscious law practices. Taneeza now directs this two-year pilot project, which launched in 2015. The priority legal service areas are for Domestic Violence Survivors and Unaccompanied Minors from Central America. CLIP was the recent recipient of monies from 100+Women Who Care Sioux Falls. And Taneeza was asked to speak at TedxUSD this past November about her journey to CLIP.

Taneeza has continued her grassroots community work around diversity, inclusion, education of Islam and Muslims, and empowering marginalized communities through Know Your Rights presentations. She strongly believes and is working on building coalitions to build critical mass to be a voice for marginalized communities. For her work she was recently recognized as the Top 17 people to watch in 2017 by the Argus Leader.

But most importantly, Taneeza is a proud mom of two rambunctious boys, Zaki (6) and Amiri (2), the key motivators of her work.

In addition to her expanding profile of community political activism, Jennifer’s life in Brookings includes her husband Scott Pedersen (a biology professor at South Dakota State University) and her two rescued dogs, Pip and Rosy.

Michaela is a member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate and grew up on the Lake Traverse Reservation in Northeast South Dakota. She received a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies from SDSU and a masters of public health from USD. Michaela is currently working toward her PhD in Health Sciences from USD. 

Michaela is the District 10 chair, precinct committeewoman for District 10, and assisted with a state senate campaign in the 2016 election. She has a background in clinical as well as social behavioral research and is currently working in the Population Health Group at Sanford Research, where she works with tribal communities in many capacities. Michaela is passionate about decreasing health disparities among Native American communities and increasing involvement of Native Americans in local and state politics. Through her experiences, she has seen how policy can negatively impact the health of tribal communities and wants to address this by focusing efforts on increasing education, awareness, and conversation around these issues. 

After 15 years excelling in the hospitality industry, Kelly was thrust into the limelight as co-director of the 2017 Sioux Falls Women’s March. While she hoped and planned for around 500 people, over 3300 marchers peacefully took to the streets, leaving Kelly overjoyed and proud to see our city come together for the rights of women in our state and country.

Since then, there was no looking back. In June of this year, Kelly received a scholarship to attend MCON (Millennial Engagement Conference), a leadership program in Washington D.C. where she learned skills on how to create and propel positive social change within her community.

As a member of LEAD, Kelly was empowered to become a leader in the Sioux Falls community. She joined the board of directors in order to continue facilitating that empowerment to women in our state. Kelly also serves as a media representative for LEAD, locally as well as nationally, and was quoted in the Washington Post profile on LEAD. She has learned to thrive in public speaking and media relations, majorly in part, because of LEAD.

Kelly was a developer of the local non-profit, Sioux Empire Rock-A-Bettys, and has recently started volunteering again with the organization. Kelly is also involved with NARAL Pro Choice South Dakota, serving as their master of ceremonies at their annual fundraising gala coming up in November of 2017. In her spare time, Kelly enjoys cooking at home with her partner, playing softball and sand volleyball, nature adventures and camping, and spending quality time with family and friends. She lives in Sioux Falls working as a freelance painter and carpenter while slinging fancy cocktails to Sioux Falls’ best and brightest at the Carpenter Bar downtown. She is currently pursuing her real estate license.