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Bios
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.
Peter Poole, PhD - Senior 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 Indians 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.
Ayla Bakkalli – Deputy Director of Advocacy
Ayla is Crimean Tatar from Ukraine and speaks fluently all the Turkic languages, both the Crimean and Volga Tartars languages, French and English with conversational Italian. She has a highly diverse background and experience as a non-governmental representative with Global Housing Foundation and the Committee on Human Settlements. She has a MA degree in Turkish/Central Asian Studies in 1997 from New York University and Bachelors in Business Administration from Bernard Baruch College 1988. She also has paralegal and real estate certification.
Neva Adamson – Human Resources Director
Neva is Cherokee and Skokomish and has 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 a liaison for Indian Gaming (casinos) tribes and the nonprofit policy agencies in Washington, DC. She currently holds a bachelor’s degree from University of Mary Washington and plans on pursuing her doctorate in American Indian studies.
Eileen C. Secrest, APR – Communications Director
Eileen has more than 25 years experience in advocacy and policy-based communications. She has a wide track record in providing communications for progressive causes, and provided communications support for number of international issues, including the Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPS) treaty and the Kyoto Accords on Global Warming. Other projects include work for the Dupont Corporation, the World Wildlife Fund, Oceana, The Alaska Wilderness League, the Save our Wild Salmon Coalition, the Keep Antibiotics Working coalition, the Gw’itchin, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, SIG-Combibloc, Georgetown University, and the American Red Cross. She is certified in Public Relations from the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and has won numerous awards for her communications work, including the Thoth Award from the National Capital Chapter of PRSA.
Jane Esi Hagan - Corporate Engagement Liaison
Jane comes from a highly diverse background of Ghanaian and Brazilian heritage. She has a broad and varied interest in international affairs issues including international human rights, socioeconomic equity, and corporate social responsibility. She has worked with organizations including the Guatemalan Human Rights Commission and the Bank Information Center. She speaks Gá, conversational French, and fluent Spanish. She is also a certified Spanish-English translator. Jane graduated cum laude from Saint Louis University in Missouri with a BA in International Relations and Communications. She holds a Masters degree in International Affairs with a specialty in Latin American issues from American University in Washington, DC.
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| First Peoples Worldwide · 3307 Bourbon Street · Fredericksburg, VA 22408 · (540) 899-6545 |
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