Rebecca Adamson, an Indigenous economist, is former director, former president, and the founder of First Nations. She currently is president of First Peoples Worldwide, which she founded in 1997 (www.firstpeoples.org), the first U.S.-based global Indigenous peoples non-governmental organization that makes grants and provides technical assistance and advocacy directly to Indigenous-led development projects. She has worked directly with grassroots tribal communities, both domestically and internationally, as an advocate of local tribal issues since 1970. Her efforts helped establish the first microenterprise loan fund in the United States, the first tribal investment model, and a national movement for reservation land reform.
Rebecca’s work has established a new field of culturally appropriate, values-driven development, creating the first reservation-based microenterprise loan fund in the United States, the first tribal investment model, a national movement for reservation land reform, and legislation that established new standards of accountability regarding federal trust responsibility for Native Americans. Adamson is the winner of the Council on Foundation’s 1996 Robert W. Scrivner Award for creative and innovative grantmaking and the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development’s 1996 Jay Silverheels Award. Adamson holds a Masters in Science in Economic Development from New Hampshire College in Manchester, New Hampshire. She was a founding member of Native Americans in Philanthropy. She has served as an advisor to the United Nations on Rural Development, U.S. delegate to the United Nations’ International Labor Organization for International Indigenous Rights, and advisor to the U.S. Catholic Conference’s Campaign for Human Development on strategic planning for economic development. Adamson was named a Woman of the Year by Ms. Magazine in January 1997 and a Social Entrepreneur of the Year by Who Cares Magazine in 1998.