Sharen Kickingwoman

Policy, Advocacy, and Organizing Director, American Civil Liberties Union of Montana

Missoula, Montana

Sharen Kickingwoman is the policy, advocacy, and organizing director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Montana. In her role, she built the first-ever community engagement program to address Indigenous justice and criminal legal reform. In her previous role as the legislative assistant for Senator Jon Tester, she was tasked with finding legislative responses to the missing and murdered Indigenous women crisis in Indian Country. In 2017, after the murder of an Indigenous woman, Sharen contributed to a bill later known as Savanna’s Act, which holds law enforcement accountable to Native communities. While the bill did not pass, it was a critical entry point to other bills that addressed this issue. Sharen is a member of the A’aaniii and Blackfeet tribes and conducts her work in rural areas.