Meet the Board: Kendra Wilson Clements
Kendra Wilson Clements (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma) has always understood leadership as something rooted in care. Long before Culture Hub existed as an organization, the impulse behind it was already forming—shaped by lived experience, community responsibility, and a deep commitment to urban Indigenous relatives finding their way back to culture and one another.
Today, Kendra serves as the Founder and Executive Director of Culture Hub, as well as the Owner and CEO of We The People Consulting and a co-founder of Matriarch, Inc. and Cousins. But titles only tell part of the story. At the center of her work is something more personal: a calling.
“I believe my calling is to create safe spaces for our urban Indigenous relatives to connect, reconnect, heal, create, and thrive,” she says.
For Kendra, Culture Hub is not simply a project or initiative. It is something she understands as a responsibility passed down through generations.
“…Culture Hub is an ancestral assignment—both a responsibility and an honor,” she explains. “It is a promise, a lifeline, and a vital generational initiative for our urban relatives.”
That sense of purpose is deeply connected to her own upbringing. Growing up with poverty and food scarcity left a lasting imprint on how she thinks about leadership and care.
“Not having access to food as a kid shaped the core of my leadership and advocacy work,” she says.
Those early experiences continue to shape the way Culture Hub shows up for community today. Programs are designed not only to celebrate culture, but to meet real needs—creating spaces where people can gather, learn, share, and support one another.
For Kendra, culture isn’t something distant or abstract. It’s something lived.
“In the now, culture is a manifestation of beliefs, values, teachings, and traditions brought to life through programming,” she says. Through storytelling, beading, drum group, traditional foods, prayer and spirituality, and learning sovereignty, culture becomes something people experience together.
The vision she carries for Culture Hub reaches far beyond the present moment. She imagines a future where the work being done today lays the foundation for generations yet to come.“At some point, years and years from now, the work we do becomes less about healing and more about connection and thriving.”
But right now, the need feels urgent. Many urban Indigenous people are still searching for spaces where they can feel safe, express themselves creatively, and reconnect with community.“Safe places and spaces for connection, healing, and creative expression—that’s what our communities need most right now.”
Kendra’s leadership style reflects the values she hopes will guide Culture Hub long into the future. “It looks like service,” she says. “And leading from the back.”
Those principles—ancestral wisdom, courage, commitment, love, truth, safety, and sustainability—shape both the organization’s direction and the way she approaches the work every day.
Outside of that work, Kendra finds restoration in the natural world. She enjoys hiking, foraging, and spending time outdoors with her dogs. But the greatest joy, she says, comes from seeing something that once felt impossible begin to take shape: a community finding its place of belonging.“I get a tremendous amount of joy knowing my community has a safe place to call home.”
During difficult moments, she often reflects on a quote by Bob Marley: “You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.”
It’s a reminder of the resilience that has carried both her and her community forward.
And in many ways, that resilience lives at the heart of Culture Hub itself—a place where community gathers, culture is lived, and generations to come may one day find their way home.
We have much to be thankful with Kendra as our founder and director.
