Rebecca Adamson

Born: 1950 or 1949

Country of Birth: USA

Nationality: USA

Ethnicity: Native American

Southern New Hampshire University MS Economic Development

""I come from a matrilineal society and having women be a source of power was there in my DNA." (wikipedia.org); “All the Indian kids had this white adhesive, this surgical tape over their mouths.” she says, “I stopped cold. And I went up to the teacher and said, ‘What are you doing?’ and she said, ‘Everyone knows that Indians are savages, they disrupt the class.’” (billmoyers.com); “If you find your own sense of power, that power will take you forward. It’s not a decision or an equation, it’s a river that you flow in.” (lifestories.org); “My journey and my vision has been driven by knowing we could solve our own problems and really wanting to listen to the ways our cultures helped us and supported our problem solving.” (culturesurvival.org); "People who have been victims may have the attitude that it was never their fault, so they don't have to take responsibility. That is insidious. You have to create projects that lock in accountability because the aim is to build personal efficacy, an 'I-can-do-it' attitude" (learningtogive.org); "

— Rebecca Adamson

Field of Study: Economics; Businesswoman

Institution/Corporation: First Nations Development Institute

Degrees & Memberships: Honorary Degree: Dartmouth College; Member: Boards of Corporation for Enterprise Development, The Bay Foundation, Josephine Bay Paul and C. Michael Paul Foundation, The Bridgespan Group, and First Voice International, Coalition of Indian-Controlled School Boards, National Center for Enterprise Development, Council of Foundations, Calvert Social Investment Fund, Calvert Small Cap Fund, Tom's of Maine Inc; founding member of Native Americans in Philanthropy, Funders Who Fund Native Americans, and International Funders for Indigenous Peoples;

Awards: 1996 Robert W. Scrivner Award, Council on Foundations; 1996 Jay Silverheels Award, National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development; 1997 named 1 of 7 Women of the Year, Ms magazine; 1998 named 1 of the top 10 Social Entrepreneurs of the Year, Who Cares magazine; 2001 John W. Gardener Leadership Award; 2004 named Scwab's Outstanding Social Entrepreneurs; 2013 PBS Change Maker; 2002 named 1 of 8 Virginia Women in History Honoree; 2003 National Women's History Month Honoree

Achievements: 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;