Lori Pourier Receives 2013 Women's World Summit Foundation Prize

Lori Pourier—an Oglala/Mnicoujou Lakota from South Dakota and the president of First Peoples Fund, as well as a former member of the GIA Board of Directors—is the recipient of the 2013 Women’s World Summit Foundation Prize for Women’s Creativity in Rural Life. She is one of 10 laureates to receive the award this year, and the only honoree from the United States.

The Women’s World Summit Foundation is an international, non-profit humanitarian organization based in Geneva, Switzerland. Created in 1991, the foundation works to elevate the contributions women and children make in creating a more just and peaceful world. The award, given every year to 10 women across the world, recognizes women who exhibit exceptional courage and creativity in improving the quality of life in rural communities. This year’s recipients come from Algeria, Myanmar, Nigeria, and India, among others. American Indian activist, environmentalist and economist Winona LaDuke, who ran for vice president on Ralph Nader’s Green Party ticket during the 1996 and 2000 U.S. Presidential elections, said that Pourier “has a gift for taking a vision—whether it is her vision or someone else’s—and making it more powerful.” Read the full announcement.