Tiffani Kelly (she/her/hers) is a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and a PhD candidate in the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Program at the University of Oklahoma (OU), which is located on Hasinai (Caddo Nation) and Kirikirʔi:s (Wichita & Affiliated Tribes) lands. She attended Colorado State University (CSU) where she earned a BS in Natural Sciences and a MS in Student Affairs in Higher Education. After graduation, Tiffani served as the Assistant Director in the Native American Cultural Center at CSU for 8 years. She currently serves as a Graduate Research Assistant for the Computer Science Indigenous Community of Learners United to Develop, Excel, and Succeed (CS-INCLUDES) program at OU.
Tiffani is an Indigenous scholar, student affairs practitioner, and first-generation college student. Her research interests are focused on critically analyzing systems of higher education, the ways settler colonial logics of elimination persist in western education systems and studying the policies and practices institutions enact that impact Indigenous communities. Her doctoral research centers the stories of Indigenous upper-level administrators working in Tribal Relations roles, and their experiences of Indigenizing higher educational spaces.