First Peoples Worldwide Director Carla Fredericks Appointed Executive Director of The Christensen Fund

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

It is with great pleasure to share that Carla F. Fredericks, Director of First Peoples Worldwide, and Director of the American Indian Law Clinic at Colorado Law has been named Executive Director of The Christensen Fund (TCF). Fredericks will lead TCF in its mission to align philanthropic endeavor with Indigenous rights, biodiversity stewardship and international mechanisms to protect and build opportunity for Indigenous Peoples.    

Fredericks, a faculty member of Colorado Law since 2013, reconstituted First Peoples Worldwide in 2017 after founder Rebecca Adamson’s retirement. She homed the venerable Indigenous rights NGO at CU as a cross-campus program that engages tribal leaders, Indigenous Peoples, investors, companies, financial institutions and policy makers to promote implementation of Indigenous rights consonant with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

“One of my proudest accomplishments during my tenure at CU was to establish First Peoples Worldwide as a partnership between Colorado Law, CESR and CNAIS,” said Fredericks. “With generous support from the University, unparalleled synergy with the programs, and through the enthusiastic and tireless work of First Peoples Worldwide’s staff, we have accomplished much to further consideration of the human rights of Indigenous Peoples, and to build through Indigenous values a more just and sustainable future for all. I look forward to seeing what accomplishments the future holds for the program and the team.”

Fredericks’ core work at CU has been to purposefully engage with Indigenous communities to realize their human rights in multiple contexts. During her tenure she has served in several relevant capacities, including providing core support to the UN Special Rapporteur on Rights of Indigenous Peoples for the entirety of her two terms, serving as of counsel to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in bringing their opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline to international fora, assisting the Maya peoples of Southern Belize in implementing the affirmation of their land rights, and developing a model for Indigenous-driven Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) processes and remedy.

She has authored and co-authored numerous studies and papers including, Social Cost and Material Loss: The Dakota Access Pipeline, and Responsible Resource Development and Prevention of Sex Trafficking: Safeguarding Native Women and Children on the Fort Berthold Reservation. Her chapter "Mapping the Sustainable Development Goals onto Indian Nations" appeared in Creating Private Sector Economies in Native America: Sustainable Development through Entrepreneurship (Cambridge University Press, 2019).

Among several current projects, First Peoples Worldwide is modeling a Private Equity Fund that supports sustainable resource development and entrepreneurship in Indian Country, amplifying perspectives of Indigenous Peoples during the Universal Periodic Review of the U.S., and supporting the Gwich'in people in protecting their lifeways from extractive industry development in the Arctic.

Through long affiliation with the Investors & Indigenous Peoples Working Group, Fredericks has advocated full integration of due diligence practices into ESG consideration in the capital markets and facilitated improvements to the Equator Principles environmental and social risk management framework. In 2020, she led the organizing of investors representing $620 billion AUM that helped to achieve the Washington Football Team name change.

Fredericks, who assumes directorship of TCF on January 1, 2021, said upon the announcement of her appointment, “I am grateful and humbled by the bold and exciting commitment The Christensen Fund has made to support implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This remarkable mission serves both to defend and elevate Indigenous Peoples and ensure protection for all beings on this planet.”

We congratulate Carla and thank her for her exemplary leadership. Please join us in wishing her the best for this next chapter in her career.

First Peoples Worldwide

See also: Seeking Justice for Indigenous Peoples: Carla Fredericks and the announcement from Colorado Law.