Vernon MillerBachelor of Science in Secondary Education
Vernon Miller is a member of the Thunder Clan from the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska &
Iowa. In January 2019, Vernon became the Residence Hall Director for Akwe:kon, the
American Indian Program House at Cornell University and advisor to the Native
American Indigenous Students at Cornell. Akwe:kon is the nation's first university
residence hall established to celebrate American Indian culture and heritage. Prior to
joining the American Indian/Indigenous Studies Program and Housing & Residential Life
at Cornell, Vernon was the 6th-12th grade Business Teacher at Omaha Nation Public
Schools upon graduation from UNL until 2013.
In 2016, Miller completed a 3-year term where he was elected to the Omaha Tribal
Council in November 2013, and in November 2014, Miller was then further elected as
the Tribal Chairman of the Omaha Tribe where he was a member of the Great Plains
Tribal Chairman’s Association and Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s Health Board. Miller
concurrently advised the Obama Administration while serving on the Tribal Interior
Budget Council for the U.S. Department of Interior, the U.S. Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration Tribal Technical Advisory Council, the National
Institutes of Health Tribal Consultation Advisory Council, and the U.S. Health and
Human Services Secretary’s Tribal Advisory Committee. In addition, Miller sat on the
Executive Board of the National Congress of American Indians and he recently served
as President of the Omaha Nation Public Schools Board of Education on the Omaha
Indian Reservation. During Chairman Miller’s tenure, he was able to lead his tribe to a
unanimous decision in the U.S. Supreme Court decision, which upheld and prevented
the diminishment of the Omaha Indian Reservation, and substantiated that only an act of
Congress can do so.
Miller also recently served as a National Racial Equity & Healing Fellow with the W.K.
Kellogg Foundation’s Community Leadership Network, an Americans for Indian
Opportunity 2010-2011 Ambassador, and a 2016 Fellow with the New Leader’s
Council: Omaha Chapter. Vernon has been named Teacher of the year by the National
Indian Education Association, Advisor of the year by the Nebraska Association of
Students Councils, and the designation of a 40 Under 40 by the National Center for the
American Indian Enterprise Development, a prestigious award which recognizes 40
emerging American Indians from across Indian Country who
have demonstrated leadership, initiative, and dedication and made significant
contributions in business and/or in their community.
Miller received his Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education from the University of
Nebraska in August 2006, and will receive his Master of Science in Counseling & Student
Development at Kansas State University in May 2019.
