Native Women Lead

Sophie Bierly

https://www.nativewomenlead.org/

OUR MISSION To revolutionize systems and inspire innovation by investing in Native Women in business. We do this by co-creating with and convening our community to build coalition while honoring our culture, creativity, and connections

In May of 2017, the Women’s Economic Forum, a global movement to elevate women in economic empowerment & leadership, hosted one of their multi-city events in Albuquerque, NM. A group of Native American Business women created a panel discussion on “Developing the Space for Positive Native Women Mentorship”. The event resulted in zero attendance from the other attendees and instead only the Native Women panelists participated. What started as a disappointing lack of interest to share our unique perspectives with others was instead a transformational opportunity to talk honestly with our peers on what it means to be a leader in business, community, family and position and the obstacles we face as American Indian and Alaskan Native women.

This discussion was the impetus to launch a networking and learning summit focused on creating a safe and inclusive event for Native women entrepreneurs and future Native women entrepreneurs, the Native Women’s Business Summit (NWBS). We knew we wanted this to be co-created from our community and decided we would use a World Cafe design to engage our community framing the conversation around our core values.

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