Richard Williams (Oglala Lakota/Cheyenne) is the founder and executive director of the People of the Sacred Land, a nonprofit located in Colorado that is currently preparing a Truth Restoration and Education Commission (TREC) to study the truth of what happened to Indian people in Colorado. He has served as the president and CEO of the American Indian College Fund, director of the Student Academic Service Center and Minority Student Affairs at the University of Colorado, and director of American Indian Upward Bound, a program designed to provide educational opportunities to Indian youth. He received an M.A. in Education Administration (Summa Cum Laude) from the University of Wyoming in 1987. In 1975, he became the first American Indian student to graduate with a B.A. (Magna Cum Laude) from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. In 1999, the University of Nebraska honored him with the Alumni Achievement Award and Distinguished Alumni Award. Rick was selected as the National Indian Education Association Educator of the Year in 2005, and honored with an honorary PhD. from Roger Williams University in 2007. Rick loves doing historical research, is an advocate for Native Language Immersion programs, and is committed to becoming a fluent Lakota speaker
