Ivan Kershner

Growing up “poor and on horseback” as part of a ranching family on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota (Lakota Sioux) provided Ivan with opportunities and perspectives rare in today’s world. As one of a class of three students in a one-room rural school, Ivan learned early the excitement of literacy and written words and their ability to enrich and narrate his world.  Uniquely, Ivan was a minority in a Native culture not far removed from its roots on the open plains. His family’s hired man, Paul Bear Saves Life, had been a baby at the massacre at Wounded Knee and Ivan’s best friend was Chucky Looking Elk.  Ivan has never forgotten these foundational life lessons on the high plains of the American West.

Ivan is certified as a public school superintendent, elementary principal, secondary principal, elementary supervisor, and secondary supervisor. He and his wife, Lynn, make their home in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in South Carolina.

They have three children and four grandchildren.