Kaila Austin is a social practice artist, working to enliven community history through the public arts and archival practices. She attended Indiana University, a triple major in Art History, African American African Diaspora Studies and Painting. In 2016, she was named a top emerging museum professional through the Association of African American Museums for her work in exhibit interpretation and design. She currently works for the organization as a Mellon Fellow creating new Paths to Accreditation for African American Museums.

Since 2019, she has run Rogue Preservation Services, LLC, a historic consulting organization that allows her to work with historically African American communities, using the arts to mobilize their histories to save their ancestral spaces. Currently, her organization is assisting six US Colored Troop Veteran founded, Reconstruction era neighborhoods in Southeast Indianapolis to protect and sustain their communities as they face disruption from the Community Justice Campus, a 140 acre, $1 billion jail complex established in 2022. Because of her work at the intersections of heritage preservation, the public arts and community advocacy, she was named Artist-Activist of the Year by the Arts Council of Indianapolis.