Kimi Floyd is a storyteller, a warrior, a spiritual guide, and a survivor. Their journey is one shaped by ancestry, community, and sacred responsibility. Born into a lineage rooted in Niitsitapi-Siksika (Blackfoot), Muscogee (Creek), Yunwiya (Cherokee), Lenape, Mohawk, Scots-Irish, Swiss, Welsh, and Russian Jewish heritage, with ancestral ties across Turtle Island, Europe, and Sub-Saharan Africa, Kimi Floyd walks with the wisdom of those who came before. Their most recent ancestor arrived in North America in 1840, but their spiritual call echoes back generations across continents.

 

Growing up in Sheridan, Wyoming, in the conservative worlds of the Church of the Nazarene and the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church, Kimi Floyd learned early what it meant to feel both the presence of the divine and the pressure of rejection. At 15, they became a suicide survivor, an experience that imprinted a theology of survival, of the importance of radical inclusion, and of the unshakable worth of every soul.
 

At age 12, Kimi Floyd met Jason Marsden, a fellow queer kid in Sheridan. Their lifelong friendship would become a source of strength and shared vision. The murder of Matthew Shepard in a state of fewer than half a million people changed both of their lives. It tore open a deeper truth: that silence could be deadly, and that queer lives deserved not just protection but celebration.Jason would later serve as Executive Director of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, while Kimi Floyd walked a parallel path into ministry, activism, and healing. Together and apart, they held space for each other’s truths and fought for a world where queer youth could live fully and freely. Kimi Floyd continues this work in Jason's memory and honor.

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Kimi Floyd’s first name, given in a childhood ceremony, means "hidden" or "secret" in the Algonquin language. It was lovingly held in private until it was time to emerge. Had they been assigned male at birth, they would have been named Floyd. Today, they hold both names as sacred, two parts of one whole, one female, one male, bound by spirit, story, and breath. Their surname, Reisch, is of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, derived from the Hebrew root resh (רֵאשׁ), meaning "head" or "beginning." It is a name historically connected to community leadership and guidance. It resonates deeply with Kimi Floyd’s calling as a visionary, spiritual leader, and advocate for justice.
 

They embody the Niitsitapi-Siksika role of ninauh-oskitsi-pahpyaki (soul and breath), understood more deeply as manly-hearted woman or ninawaki—a gender-expansive identity with sacred responsibilities. They also carry the title awau-katsik-saki, meaning warrior woman.

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Kimi Floyd is a first-generation college student, the first in their maternal family to complete a  doctorate. They graduated magna cum laude from Metropolitan State University with a BA in Gender and Ethnic Studies and a minor in History. They later earned a Master of Divinity with a concentration in Social Transformation and a Doctor of Ministry in Public Theology from United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, where their theological imagination was nurtured under the guidance of scholars like Dr. Demian Wheeler. Earlier in life, they had nearly completed a degree in History and Political Science with double minors in Communication and Secondary Education, but a divorce and single parenthood forced them to leave just one class and student teaching shy of graduation. Like many students, systemic barriers and life circumstances shaped their academic journey.

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Ordained through The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries (TFAM), Kimi Floyd has been mentored and blessed by powerful spiritual leaders including Bishop and Presiding Prelate Yvette Flunder and Bishop Tim Wolfe. Their ministry has been sharpened and shaped by movement elders and co-conspirators like Rev. Janice Steele and her wife Patrisha Gill, whose lives are testaments to radical love in action. Their closest circles include countless unnamed mentors, visionaries, and survivors who have taught them to pray with their feet and to build communities with no one left outside the circle.

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They have served in many roles: as Program Minister and ONA Consultant for the Open and Affirming Coalition of the United Church of Christ, as Administrator of the Unitarian Universalist Association’s General Assembly, and currently as the LGBTQ and Multicultural Events Coordinator for the UUA. In each role, Kimi Floyd has centered the voices of the marginalized and lifted up stories too often erased.

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A published poet since the age of 13, Kimi Floyd is a lifelong writer and educator. Their poetry, prose, and curriculum are shaped by a deep commitment to spiritual resilience, intersectional justice, and collective transformation. They recently authored the 2024–2025 UUA Common Read curriculum for Authentic Selves: Celebrating Trans and Nonbinary People and Their Families, as well as the 2024–2025 Soul Matters Youth Curriculum. They have previously written for the United Church of Christ’s “Witness for Justice” blog and other national publications. They are revising their doctoral research into a forthcoming book titled Borderlines of Belonging: Multiracial Lives and the Search for Community.
 

Their theology is rooted in radical inclusion, liberation, and the enduring truth that we are all connected by something greater, whether we call it God, Spirit, breath, or simply the spark within.

In speaking to why they have dedicated their life working toward radical inclusion, Kimi Floyd has written: “I am now the author of my own story, a story rooted in love, justice, and transformation, and not one where my authentic self is dismissed as ‘sin.’”

Everyone deserves to know that truth and to live their lives with wholeness and joy.