REBECCA L. ADAMSON, MSED
Rebecca Adamson, an Indigenous economist and a life-long advocate for the rights of indigenous peoples around the world.
Born in Ohio to a Cherokee mother and a Swedish-American father, she learnt from a young age on the knees of her Cherokee grandmother about the history and culture of her Cherokee people.
She holds a Masters in Science in Economic Development from Southern New Hampshire University (formerly New Hampshire College) in Manchester, New Hampshire, where she taught graduate courses on Indigenous Economics within the Community Economic Development Program. She also holds a Doctor in Humane Letters degree from Dartmouth College.
Since 1970 Rebecca has worked directly with grassroots tribal communities, both domestically and internationally, as an advocate of local tribal issues, and has led initiatives everywhere from Botswana to Australia promoting values-based investment, environmental stewardship, and self-determination for native peoples everywhere.
Recognizing the vital link between Indigenous economic self-sufficiency and self-determination, Rebecca founded the First Nations Development Institute in 1980, where she spearheaded the creation of the first microloan fund in the US, the first tribal investment model; and, a national movement for reservation land reform.
She served as an advisor to the United Nations on Rural Development and as a U.S. delegate to the United Nations’ International Labor Organization for International Indigenous Rights.
With the World Bank, she created the Indigenous Peoples Climate Action Fund in 2009, to address Indigenous Peoples’ climate change issues. Rebecca’s decades-long work has established a new field of culturally appropriate, values-driven development.
2014 to present
Rebecca is currently serving on the Board of Directors for The Bay and Paul Foundations, the Calvert Social Investment Fund (the largest socially responsible mutual fund), the Calvert Group Governance Committee, and Co-chairs the Calvert Social Investment Fund Audit Committee.
Her work has established a new field of culturally appropriate, values-driven development, which has led to legislation establishing new standards of accountability regarding federal trust responsibility for Native Americans.
As a trustee of Calvert, Rebecca partnered with the Fund to create the first Indigenous Peoples’ rights investment screen in 1999, and in 2014 this led the creation of the Indigenous Rights Risk Report, the first quantitative assessment of corporate risk exposure to Indigenous Peoples’ rights.
In 2015 she has established three Shareholder Advocacy Leadership Training Centers located in Guatemala, Mexico and Canada as a new strategy for Indigenous leaders in addressing extractive industry on Indigenous territories. She was appointed as an advisor to the U.S. Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative Multi-Stakeholder Group, serving from 2014 to the present.
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