Biographies

Miriam Jorgensen is Associate Director for Research for the Native Nations Institute for Research, Management, and Policy (NNI) at the University of Arizona and Research Director at the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development. Her areas of specialty are governance and economic development in Indian Country, and her work has addressed issues as wide-ranging as welfare policy, policing and justice system development, enterprise management, asset building, and philanthropy to Native America.

Dr. Jorgensen received a BA from Swarthmore College (1987), BA and MA from the University Oxford (1989 and 1995), and MPP and PhD from Harvard University (1991 and 2000). She has been a Visiting Scholar at the Washington University Schools of Law and Social Work; has served as an instructor in economics at Harvard University and Washington University; teaches in the Native Nations Instituteâ€™s executive education program for tribal leaders; and is a former member of the Swarthmore College Board of Managers. She is a co-author of the books The State of the Native Nations: Conditions under U.S. Policies of Self-Determination and Rebuilding Native Nations: Strategies for Governance and Development, both released in 2007.

Elena Chávez Quezada is Senior Associate for the Aspen Instituteâ€™s Initiative on Financial Security (IFS). Elena is responsible for examining legislative policies on savings and investment. She contributes to IFS policy proposals and advises on IFS's legislative strategy. Ms. Chávez Quezada previously worked at the Community Development Venture Capital Alliance (CDVCA), where she coordinated policy activities relevant to the community development venture capital industry and organized CDVCA's annual conference. Ms. Chávez Quezada, a native New Mexican, also worked on Capitol Hill as a legislative correspondent for U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) in Washington, D.C. She is a board member of the Neighborhood Trust Federal Credit Union, and holds a BA and MPP from Harvard University.

Karen Edwards is the principal of KME Consulting, LLC, established in 2006, whose clients include First Nations Development Institute, First Nations Oweesta Corporation, National Congress of American Indians, and both the Center for Social Development (CSD) and the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies, at Washington University in St. Louis.Â Ms. Edwards previously worked for Washington University in St. Louis for over twenty years, where she assisted Dr. Michael Sherraden in founding CSD in 1994, and worked on several research projects related to the effectiveness of IDA and asset-building policies and programs in the United States.Â While with CSD, Ms. Edwards also established a body of collaborative work between CSD and the Buder Center for American Indian Studies on asset-building research in Native communities.

Ms. Edwards has served as a resource on IDAS and other asset-building policies and programs since 1995, assisting both community-based asset-building program directors, and state policymakers and advocates.Â Current projects include CSD's State Assets Policy Project (SAPP), an initiative that she originated in 1999, and research studies on EITC initiatives, predatory lending practices, and establishing control of Land Title Records Offices, in Native communities. Ms. Edwards also provides technical assistance to Native communities who wish to develop IDA and financial education programs, and asset-building coalitions. She is a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

Elsie Meeks, an enrolled member of the Oglala Lakota Tribe, is the President & CEO of Oweesta (First Nations Oweesta Corporation). Elsie has over 20 years experience working for Native community economic development. Prior to her leadership and work at Oweesta, Elsie was active for 20 years in the development and management of The Lakota Funds, a small business and microenterprise development loan fund CDFI on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. She serves as chairperson of The Lakota Funds and is a board member of Corporation for Enterprise Development, Northwest Area Foundation, Council on Foundations and the Oglala Sioux Tribe Partnership for Housing. She is also an International Advisory Council member of Native Nations Institute and on the Board of Governors for the Honoring Nations program of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development. She completed a six-year term on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and was the first Native American to serve on the Commission. Elsie is presently the chairperson for the Native Financial Education Coalition, for which Oweesta serves as lead organization. Elsie and her husband Jim make their home on their ranch near Kyle, SD on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Peter Morris has been involved in Indigenous policy, research and advocacy for over a decade - both in his home country of Australia, and in the United States. He currently serves as the Director of Strategy and Partnerships for the National Congress of American Indian's Policy Research Center, managing the day-to-day operations of the center, coordinating policy research related to tribal governance and economic development, and leading the Center's outreach to mainstream think-tanks and academic research centers. Peter earned his Masters degree in American Indian Studies at the University of Arizona and completed his undergraduate work at the University of New South Wales. Peter has also worked as Director of Policy for First Nations Development Institute and Director of Scholar Recruitment at the University of Arizona. His research has been published in academic journals and he has provided advice on Indigenous policy to senior policymakers in Australia and the U.S.