Senator Reynold Nesiba

Reynold F. Nesiba (born May 7, 1966) is an American politician and a Democratic member of the South Dakota Senate. He has served as Minority Leader since 2023. Nesiba is also a professor of economics at Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Early Life and Education: Nesiba was born in St. Paul, Nebraska, to Leonard Nesiba, a World War II veteran and small business owner, and Irene (Schmale) Nesiba. Together, Nesiba’s parents owned and operated Nesiba’s Cafe in St. Paul. In 1989, Nesiba earned his Bachelor of Arts in Economics at the University of Denver. Six years later, he completed his PhD in economics from the University of Notre Dame, where he also procured his master’s degree.

Career: In 1995, Nesiba was hired by Augustana University in Sioux Falls as an assistant professor. After six years in this capacity, he was promoted to associate professor of economics, a post he would occupy until 2013. He is now a professor of economics at the same university, simultaneously serving as a member of the board of directors for Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs (HECUA). He was also welcomed as a visiting scholar at his alma mater, Notre Dame University, in 2002. The next year, he worked as a senior visiting scholar at Curtin University in Perth.

Nesiba is a member of the Association for Institutional Thought and the Association for Evolutionary Economics. He has co-authored textbooks in his area of expertise: “An Introduction to Financial Markets and Institutions” and “Economics: An Introduction to Traditional and Progressive Views” along with a handful of other publications in journals such as Social Problems, the Journal of Economic Issues, On the Horizon, and Cityscape.

Publications and Research:

• Burton, Maureen, Bruce Brown, and Reynold F. Nesiba. An Introduction to Financial Markets and Institutions, 2nd ed. Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, Inc., 2010.
• Sherman, Howard, E. K. Hunt, Reynold F. Nesiba, Philip A. O’Hara, and Barbara A. Wiens-Tuers. Economics: An Introduction to Traditional and Progressive Views, 7th ed. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 2008.
• Nesiba, Reynold. “Do Institutionalists and Post-Keynesians Share a Common Approach to Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)?” European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, (May 2013), Vol. 10 No. 1, 2013, pp. 44–60.