Lori Lea Pourier

Lori Lea Pourier (Oglala Lakota), an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, has served as the President of First Peoples Fund (FPF) since 1999. FPF honors and supports the Collective Spirit of Native artists and culture bearers through fellowships, grants and community-based partnerships, FPF’s deeply rooted Indigenous Arts Ecology model and movement building strategies. FPF’s Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Awards honors Native culture bearers who selflessly give of themselves and bring spirit back to the community.

Lori’s early work began at First Nations Development Institute and as the Executive Director of the International Indigenous Women’s Network (IWN). She is a 2017 Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellow, a recipient of the 2013 Women’s World Summit Foundation Prize for Creativity in Rural Life, and a 2013 Louis T. Delgado Distinguished Grantmaker Awardee. As an alumnus of the Americans for Indian Opportunity (AIO) American Indian Ambassadors Leadership Program, she stands with more than 300 Indigenous leaders.

Lori serves on the Board of Directors of the Jerome Foundation and the Library of Congress American Folklife Center Board of Trustees. She served two terms on the board of directors of the Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA) and Native Americans in Philanthropy. Lori also contributed to the National Endowment for the Arts’ publication, How to Do Creative Placemaking.

Lori is a Core Partner with Arts in a Changing America, the Cultural New Deal and the Intercultural Leadership Institute (ILI), a collaboration between First Peoples Fund, Alternate ROOTS, the PA’I Foundation, and National Association of Latino Arts and Culture.