Kirby Williams (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma) is a violence prevention specialist addressing violence against Native people and tribal communities and is a survivor of intimate partner violence and sexual assault. She holds a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from Missouri State University. Since 2014, she has worked in her professional and personal life to raise awareness and promote prevention of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, and stalking, and has conducted numerous trainings nationwide on serving Native American survivors of these crimes. She is a Class 5 graduate fellow of the National Human Trafficking Leadership Academy (HTLA), in which she and 11 other Indigenous fellows addressed how culture can be used as a protective factor in the trafficking of all Indigenous youth. For her work in violence prevention, she was named an inaugural recipient of the Cherokee Phoenix’s Seven Feathers Award and the Nebraska recipient of the 2022 National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s (NSVRC) Visionary Voice Award. In 2022, she helped to establish the Nebraska Tribes Addressing Violence Coalition (NETAV), and was named the executive director for the organization in 2023.
In addition to her understanding of violence against Native Americans, she has a background of knowledge and training in psychological diagnostics, statistical analysis, the impact of trauma from a physical and psychological perspective, healing from a culturally relevant perspective, and yoga teaching. She currently serves on the board for the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs (NCIA) and is the tribal representative for the Nebraska Domestic Abuse Death Review Team.