Who sits on Turning Point USA’s board of directors and what are their backgrounds?
Executive summary
Turning Point USA’s formal board of directors is publicly small and centered on the Kirk family and a handful of private-sector conservatives: Erika Kirk (now CEO and chair), and directors named in TPUSA communications as David Engelhardt, Doug DeGroote, Tom Sodeika and Mike Miller (with Charlie Kirk identified historically as founder and earlier board leader) [1] [2] [3]. Available organizational pages and recent press provide short professional labels for several directors—attorney/pastor, financial planner, payroll executive—but public biographies on TPUSA’s own governance listing and news coverage leave gaps in full professional histories for some members [1] [4] [2].
1. Who currently sits on TPUSA’s board — the roster and recent change
TPUSA’s governance page lists Charlie Kirk, David Engelhardt, Doug DeG roote (DeGroote), Mike Miller and Tom Sodeika as members of the board of directors and shows an extended honorary board of right‑of‑center media and political figures [1]. Following Charlie Kirk’s death, TPUSA announced Erika Kirk was unanimously elected CEO and chair of the board, with a statement signed by board members Doug DeGroote, Mike Miller, Tom Sodeika and David Engelhardt confirming the leadership transition [3] [2]. Public-facing organizational listings therefore identify a compact working board anchored by the Kirks and three or four private-sector conservative donors/entrepreneurs [1] [2].
2. Erika Kirk — new CEO and chair; continuity with founder’s circle
Erika Kirk was named CEO and chair of Turning Point USA in the September 2025 announcement conveying a board vote to install her as leader after Charlie Kirk’s death, and that statement was signed by existing directors Doug DeGroote, Mike Miller, Tom Sodeika and David Engelhardt [3] [2]. News coverage frames her selection as an internal succession aimed at continuity of Charlie Kirk’s organizational vision, an interpretation the board’s signed statement itself advances [2].
3. David Engelhardt — attorney, pastor, New York resident
News reporting identifies David Engelhardt as an attorney and pastor of King’s Church in Manhattan and notes he joined TPUSA’s board in 2020 and lives in New York with his family; TPUSA’s team pages include biographical snippets that corroborate his board membership and local ties [4] [2]. TPUSA’s governance listing includes Engelhardt among the named directors, but detailed public documentation about his full professional résumé beyond attorney/pastor descriptors in the provided sources is limited [1] [4].
4. Doug DeGroote — financial planner and fundraising presence
TPUSA’s public team materials and governance page describe Doug DeGroote as a Certified Financial Planner with an MBA in Financial Planning and an active member of professional financial associations, and he appears among the directors who publicly signed the leadership statement [4] [1] [3]. Media reporting and TPUSA listings present him as a private‑sector financial professional and long‑standing donor/board figure, but the provided sources do not supply a detailed career timeline beyond professional credentials and association memberships [4] [1].
5. Tom Sodeika and Mike Miller — identified executives with limited public bios in sources
Tom Sodeika is named in TPUSA’s governance materials and in news accounts as a board signatory; Newsweek describes him as president and CEO of Precision Payroll of America, connecting him to payroll and business operations [1] [2]. Mike Miller is likewise listed on TPUSA’s governance page and as a signatory on the leadership statement, but the supplied documents give only his name on the board list without a full public biography in the provided reporting [1] [3]. The sources thus identify their roles but leave gaps on career details for Miller and fuller CV items for Sodeika beyond the payroll‑company affiliation [2] [1].
6. Honorary board and broader ecosystem — media, former officials, and critiques
TPUSA also maintains an honorary board composed of prominent conservative media and political figures—Ambassador Richard Grenell, Col. Allen West, Dr. Sebastian Gorka, Eric Bolling and others appear on that list—which signals the group’s alignment with high‑profile conservative personalities even when they are not governance directors [1]. Independent reporting and aggregators note TPUSA’s activist tactics on campuses and in school‑board politics—context critics use to scrutinize the organization’s governance and donor influence—while also chronicling past controversies that have surrounded senior staff and organizational campaigns [5] [6] [7].
7. What the sources do and do not disclose — transparency limits
The organization’s own governance and team pages, plus contemporary news reports, identify the board roster and give compact professional labels for several members, but publicly available materials in the provided reporting do not deliver exhaustive professional histories, compensation details, dates of appointment for every director, or a full disclosure of board meeting practices and donor ties [1] [4] [2]. Where the record is thin, reporting notes the names and job titles; deeper vetting would require additional primary documents—SEC/IRS filings, full resumes, or independent investigative reporting—not included in the sources supplied here [7].