Rory Wheeler is a citizen of the Seneca Nation and serves as the Vice President and Northeast Representative for United National Indian Tribal Youth, Inc. (UNITY). He previously served as the Youth Commission Vice President and President for the National Congress of American Indians from 2016-2020, where we worked with tribal leaders, youth leaders on the pressing topics that impact Native youth on issues such as advancing the government to government relationship with the United States, climate resiliency, juvenile justice, education, and representation. He presently serves on the Board of Directors for the Association on American Indian Affairs, Community Advisory Board for the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Previously, Rory was a White House Tribal Nations Youth Ambassador during the Obama Administration, a Health Policy Fellow with the National Indian Health Board and was the Youth Ambassador & Government/External Affairs Fellow for the Seneca Nation. In 2020, he helped lead the Biden-Harris presidential campaign’s Native American Policy Committee as co-chairman of the Native youth subcommittee. He received his Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, from Niagara University in Political Science/Pre-Law and has been an active member since 2010 of the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation Volunteer Fire Department where he serves as a volunteer firefighter, emergency medical technician, and rope rescue technician.