Vanessa Roanhorse is the CEO of Roanhorse Consulting, LLC, an Indigenous-led social enterprise dedicated to shifting power dynamics in health and economic systems to create a thriving future for the next generations. She has been instrumental in designing innovative investment frameworks that center Indigenous knowledge and lived experience, including relationship-based lending models and capital strategies that decolonize traditional risk assessment. Her work has influenced the development of Native Women Lead’s Matriarch Funds, Nusenda Credit Union’s Microlending Program, and Rural Community Assistance Corporation’s Relative Fund, all of which use relational capital as a pathway to economic self-determination.

She serves on the boards of Delta Institute, Seven Fires, and Potlikker Capital and advises the Ecosystem Building Leadership Network. Her leadership and impact have been widely recognized, including being named a 2024 Impact Finance Center “Who’s Who of Impact Investing” Awardee, a 2022 Miss Porter’s School Donaldson Awardee, a 2021 PayPal Maggie Lena Walker Emerging Leader Awardee, and a 2020 Conscious Company Media World Changing Woman in Sustainable Business Awardee.

Vanessa is the founder of Roanhorse Consulting, a founding member of Zebras Unite, a co-founder of Native Women Lead, and a co-founder of the Rematriating Economies Apprenticeship. A citizen of the Navajo Nation, she resides in unceded Tiwa territory with her partner and 11-year-old son.