Businesswoman

1980 founded the First Nations Development Institute; 1986 served as an adviser on rural development for the United Nations (UN) during their Decade of Women; adviser for the UN's International Labor Organization International Indigenous Rights from 1988 to 1989; 1992, she became an adviser for the Catholic Conference's Campaign for Human Development; served on the President's Council on Sustainable Development/Sustainable Communities Task Force; h work led to the first microloan fund in the United States associated with a reservation, the first tribal investment model. This was a national movement for reservation land reform, and legislation on federal trust responsibility for Native Americans; international work created the Lumba Aboriginal Community Foundation in Australia enabling the Sans Tribe to secure its traditional homelands in Botswana, Namibia, and southern Africa; launched a strategy (that includes Alcoa, Texaco, Rio Tinto, Merck, Ford, and Occidental) with investment criteria that protect the rights of indigenous peoples and has been adopted by a mutual fund, an index fund, and investment advisors; established a scholarship program for native people at the Yale School of Organization and Management and at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota; convinced the World Bank to create the First Global Indigenous Peoples' Facility Fund to make small building grants; founding member of Native Americans in Philanthropy, Funders Who Fund Native Americans, and International Funders for Indigenous Peoples; one of the key leaders of the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) movement; co-author the award-winning book “The Color of Wealth: the Story Behind the US Racial Wealth Divide”; founded Oweesta Corporation, Indian Land Tenure Foundation, and North American Native Bankers Association; co-founded Association for Enterprise Opportunity which led the microenterprise movement in the United States, and then created Oweesta (1984); 2015 she has established four Shareholder Advocacy Leadership Training Centers located in Argentina, Mexico and Canada; established a Masters in Public and Private Administration (MPPA) scholarship program for Native People at the Yale School of Organization and Management and an MBA scholarship at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management;

None

Category:
Economics

Completion Status:
yes

Patent Number:
N/A

Co-Inventor:
None