Governor Larry Rhoden, who took office on Saturday upon the resignation of Governor Kristi Noem, has announced his appointment of Mackenzie Decker as his chief of staff. Decker will fill a role that has been vacant since Mark Miller’s departure as Governor Kristi Noem’s chief of staff in June 2023.
Decker will be just the second woman to be chief of staff to a South Dakota governor, following Dianna Miller, who was chief of staff to Governor Bill Janklow in 1986-87.
Decker has been serving in the Noem administration as Director of Policy, and has served as a policy advisor for government operations including technology, human resources, and finance, as well as for tribal relations. A twelve-year veteran of state government, she previously worked in the Department of Labor and Regulation and the Governor’s Office of Economic Development.
A list of the modern chiefs of staff, since the Farrar administration, is posted on the Online Almanac of South Dakota Politics.
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