Kenneth Daniel Gallegos Miyagishima was born in Biloxi, Mississippi in 1963. He is of both Japanese and Mexican descent. He has livedin Las Cruces since 1971.
He attended public schoolsand in 1985 graduated from New Mexico State University (NSMU) with degrees in finance and real estate. In 1984 – while still attending NMSU – Ken began his insurance and financial services business, which he still owns today.
In 1992, he became New Mexico’s first American of Japanese descent to be elected to public office. From 1998 through 2000, he was voted “Best County Commissioner” in a local newspaper readers’ poll. In 2002, he received the Commander’s Award for Public Service from the United States Department of the Army. Miyagishima won re-election as to the city council in 2005.