HOME   ABOUT US   ACT NOW!   PROGRAMS   GRANTS   RESOURCES   NEWS   DONATE   • ABOUT US         • MISSION    STATEMENT       • CONTACT        • STAFF        • BOARD     Staff Rebecca Adamson – President and Founder Ms. Adamson, a Cherokee, has worked directly with grassroots tribal communities, and nationally as an advocate of local tribal issues since 1970. She started First Nations Development Institute in 1980 and First Peoples Worldwide in 1997. Ms. Adamson's work established a new field of culturally appropriate, values-driven development which created: 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. Ms. Adamson is active in many non-profit organizations and is currently serving on the Board of Directors for Corporation for Enterprise Development, The Bay Foundation, Josephine Bay Paul and C. Michael Paul Foundation, The Bridgespan Group, and First Voice International. She is on the Board of Directors for the Calvert Social Investment Fund (the largest socially responsible mutual fund), serves on the Calvert Group Governance Committee, and Co-chairs the Calvert Social Investment Fund Audit Committee. Ms. Adamson 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, the U.S. Catholic Conference's Campaign for Human Development on strategic planning for economic development, and the International Labor Organization for International Indigenous Rights. Over past two decades, Ms. Adamson has received numerous awards for her work with Indigenous peoples, most recently including the 2004 Schwab Outstanding Social Entrepreneur and a Doctor in Humane Letters degree from Dartmouth College. Ms. Adamson holds a Masters in Science in Economic Development from Southern New Hampshire University (formerly New Hampshire College) in Manchester, New Hampshire, where she also teaches a graduate course on Indigenous Economics within the Community Economic Development Program. Neva Adamson – Managing Director Neva is Cherokee and Skokomish. She has 6 years of experience working with both government and non government agencies. She has provided grant training and conference planning for the Federal Government. She has also worked as an advocate for American Indian Gaming tribes. She found a second home when she joined First Peoples. She is passionate about providing Indigenous Peoples with a voice in the global forum. She currently holds a bachelor's degree from University of Mary Washington and plans on pursuing her doctorate in International and Economic Development. Her greatest joy is being a mother to her two wonderful boys, but following not too far behind is the excitement and satisfaction she feels with her career in making a difference for others. Jessica Friswell - Research Coordinator Jess came to First Peoples after graduating from Wagner College in 2006 where she majored in English and minored in Spanish and Sociology/Anthropology. Long before leaving academia and setting out into the "real world," Jess knew she wanted to work for social justice and became involved in raising awareness of global and national human rights abuses and environmental issues. Jess loves to travel and has visited six continents, all while wearing the same pair of flip flops. Outside of her work at First Peoples, Jess enjoys cooking, art, and spending time outside. A native of Massachusetts, Jess is an avid Red Sox fan. Scott Klinger - Director of Corporate Engagement Scott brings more than two decades of experience in social investing and community engagement. Scott has facilitated dialogues between community groups and corporations on topics ranging from environmental concerns to predatory lending. He has coordinated the filing of dozens of shareholder resolutions, on topics that include executive compensation, corporate control of water and corporate involvement in electoral politics. Scott has developed curricula using principles of popular education and writes extensively seeking to demystify the economy and corporations' role in it. Scott has lived and worked with the Turtle Mountain Ojibwa and the Yup'ik people of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. Scott graduated from Duke University with an A.B. in Religion and Public Policy. Scott is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and holds a private pilot's license. Jacqueline Tiller - Office/Human Resources Coordinator Jacqueline is an enrolled member of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, Ketchikan, Alaska. Ms. Tiller has worked for over a decade providing training and technical assistance to American Indian-led community projects in, for and with a variety of American Indian organizations. She is a past board member of Native Americans in Philanthropy and the Community Food Security Coalition. She has also served on grant review panels of two programs of the United States Department of Agriculture; the Community Food Projects Competitive Grants Program, and the Outreach and Education Program of the Risk Management Agency, where she advocated for Indigenous community projects to receive thousands of dollars in Federal Government grants. Her lifetime learning ambition leads her to continue in pursuit of a degree in Business Management. Johna Van Noy - Office Manager Johna moved to Northern Virginia in 2007 to pursue career in advocating for international Indigenous Peoples’ rights. As a graduate student, Johna was actively involved in issues of NAGPRA and Repatriation as they pertain to ethnographic museum collections. Her passion for international Indigenous issues has enabled her to participate in the 2005 World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education held in New Zealand and a cultural exchange with the Giellagas Institute, Center for Sami Language and Culture, in Oulu, Finland. She has worked closely with American Indian students and faculty on culturally appropriate protocol when working with museum collections. Johna holds a Bachelor’s in Anthropology from Austin College and a Master’s in Indigenous Nations Studies with a focus in Cultural Preservation Management from the University of Kansas. Consultants Juan Carlos Bonilla holds a MBA degree from the Edinburgh Business School (Heriot-Watt University, Scotland) and is currently a member of the doctoral program (PhD/DBA) at the International University of Monaco and the Université Nice Sophia Antípolis in Southern France. For 15 years he has led projects and programs, first in his native Guatemala, then in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa. He is now an international consultant applying a businesslike entrepreneurial approach to the social sector. Peter Poole, PhD - Field Advisor Dr. Poole has over 25 year experience in use of remote sensing and related geo-spatial technologies to map land rights, and natural and cultural resources. He has extensive experience training and assisting Indigenous peoples to create and use maps to document their lands and other assets. Dr. Poole has worked on scores of mapping projects from the Arctic to the tropics in the Americas, Asia and Africa. He is currently training Saramaka in Suriname to use aerial photography to produce maps for planning and assessing impacts of logging on their lands. Recent projects include: capacity-building in aerial photography with local non-government organizations and Indigenous communities in Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela; training Inuit environmental technicians in light aircraft aerial environmental monitoring in Nunavut, Canada; and building a network of community-based mapping groups in Asia. Dr. Poole received his BS from London University in Sociology and Economics, Advanced Diploma in Photo Interpretation, ITC, The Netherlands, MA from Columbia University in Geography, and Ph.D. in Geography from McGill University. Pictured below: Neva Adamson, Scott Klinger, Rebecca Adamson, Jessica Friswell, Jackie Tiller – by Peter Poole First Peoples Worldwide   857 Leeland Road • Fredericksburg, VA 22405 • USA   info@firstpeoplesworldwide.org • (540) 899-6545      © Copyright 2010-2007, First Peoples Worldwide