Innovation is a broad term, even by its own definition: "the introduction of something new."
We believe each of this year's Innovation Awards honorees match that definition perfectly. Whether it's inventing a crime-stopping technology, paving the way for Indigenous entrepreneurship or breaking outside the clothing binary, they are all innovating in their own ways.
This year's New Mexico Inno special edition comes with the same concept and the same focus as the 2022 Fire Awards, but with a new name — the Innovation Awards. In light of the devastating fires that spread across large swaths of New Mexico last year, we felt it important to rebrand this annual section.
The Innovation Awards recipients were selected by the Albuquerque Business First editorial team and New Mexico Inno Reporter Jacob Maranda. The process was based on reader nominations and our own insights. Some of the things we looked for when evaluating organizations were: new funding, adding headcount, social and community impact, product launches, company pivots/growth and stories of innovators reshaping the ecosystem.
In the end we chose five honorees, a mix of companies and organizations each carving their own path and helping to drive New Mexico's economy forward.
All five of the honorees are featured in the April 28 print edition of Business First. Each profile was also published online.
The Future is Indigenous Women
When the U.S. Senate confirmed Deb Haaland as secretary of the Department of the Interior in March 2021, she became the first Native American Cabinet secretary in U.S. history.
Three years prior, Haaland, who is from the Laguna Pueblo, offered her voice in support of Native Women Lead, an Indigenous entrepreneur support organization based in New Mexico. She attended Native Women Lead's inaugural event, a summit held in Albuquerque that brought together hundreds of Native American women from around the country.
Haaland's path to the White House is more than just an example for Jaime Gloshay, co-founder of the New Mexico-based organization — it's a confirmation.
"It's just further affirmed the need to continue to do this work," she said. "We need to see more Indigenous women in Congress and leadership and all these different roles."
However, Native Women Lead isn't alone. In 2020, that organization partnered with two others to apply for millions of dollars in grant money.
Together, Native Women Lead, Roanhorse Consulting LLC and New Mexico Community Capital formed The Future is Indigenous Women. And together, that coalition won a $10 million grant in late 2021 through the Equality Can't Wait Challenge to accelerate Native women's empowerment in New Mexico and across the U.S.
The Future is Indigenous Women combines the work of the three partner organizations into one united entity. It's centered around the concept of "rematriation" — or, as Gloshay described, "Indigenous women holding positions of power and leadership to be able to define and determine their life path."
"This isn't just about business," said Vanessa Roanhorse, who founded her firm Roanhorse Consulting in 2016. "We're using entrepreneurship as a pathway, but we believe economic agency and mobility is possible if we put women back into positions of leadership and opportunity."
The coalition uses resources from its partner organizations, like technical assistance and training through New Mexico Community Capital and storytelling and event programming through Native Women Lead. Each organization is founded and led by Native women.
"For us, it was a no-brainer to partner with our sister organizations," Roanhorse said. "It was really intentional from the collective to not duplicate peoples' gifts and assets. We really wanted to lean into each other."
Elizabeth Gamboa, executive director of New Mexico Community Capital, said her organization offers hardware tools like computers and digital wallets to entrepreneurs. Those are combined with four different matriarch funds that Native Women Lead has raised — a Covid-19 response fund, a creative fund, a restorative fund and, most recently, a $10 million revolutionary fund — to provide what Gloshay described as "wrap-around support."
It's no surprise that such a coalition formed in New Mexico. Gamboa, Gloshay and Roanhorse all mentioned the long history of Indigenous folks' involvement in culture, community and politics in the state.
"New Mexico is a grounding place in which things like New Mexico Community Capital can be born, an organization like Native Women Lead could get footing so quickly and a small company like mine was able to create a niche for the work I did," Roanhorse said.
The Future is Indigenous Women recently opened applications for an apprenticeship program for Indigenous women interested in working in venture capital.
But that's just one recent effort.
Native Women Lead's 2022 Impact Report shows it served around 600 Indigenous women last year. And New Mexico Community Capital's Native Entrepreneur In Residence program has created over 250 jobs in New Mexico, according to its website.
These efforts have now combined through The Future is Indigenous Women and are targeted at building a new "waterway" for Native leadership and power, Gloshay said.
"We aren't people of the past," she said. "We're actually innovative folks and people of the future."
