For the past three years, the New Mexico Tribal Entrepreneurship Program (NMTEEP) has been working with Liaisons in various tribal, rural, and coal-impacted communities throughout the state of New Mexico, with a focus on coal-impacted communities. As entrepreneurs themselves and active members in their communities, the Tribal Liaisons have engaged in discovery sessions, served as mentors, connectors, and ecosystem builders for other entrepreneurs. Through this discovery and engagement, NMTEEP has created a Discovery Report which identifies needs, barriers, actionable solutions, and recommendations going forward based on the interviews, stories, and lived experiences from Native American and tribal entrepreneurs throughout the state of New Mexico.
On April 24th, UNM Rainforest Innovations held a Showcase and Celebration for NMTEEP in collaboration with the UNM Rainforest Forum, where the Program Manager and Tribal Liaisons shared the discovery and accomplishments over the past three years and discussed ways in which organizations, government, resource providers, and communities can take these discoveries and implement additional programming, efforts, and solutions going forward to continue to support indigenous and tribal businesses and entrepreneurs.
During the event, the Program Manager presented the Discovery Report and program transition plan. The tribal liaisons sat on a panel moderated by program advisor Sandra Begay and spoke about their businesses, how entrepreneurship has impacted their lives, and how engagement with UNM Rainforest Innovations and NMTEEP has impacted their communities. An additional panel was held with entrepreneurs from various tribal communities in New Mexico who had engaged with the program and benefitted from working with their tribal liaisons and NMTEEP. The entrepreneur panel was moderated by Dr. Richard Luarkie. You can see the live recordings of the Discovery Report Presentation and Panels on our YouTube channel:
The program is currently funded by a grant administered by the U.S. Economic Development Administration. The allocated budget from the current funds will be wrapping-up in June 2025. As a result, the program is undergoing a transition and evolution period as far as next steps. This transition plan and additional programmatic developments were discussed during the Discovery Report Presentation as well as in a separate press release (read here).
The UNM Rainforest Forum was created by the UNM Rainforest Innovations Board of Directors to bring together UNM and business community members to enhance and strengthen UNM’s role in economic development. UNM Rainforest Innovations is committed to continuing its work with tribal entrepreneurs as an important part of the New Mexico economy and entrepreneurial ecosystem and seeking partners and collaborators to help continue to fund such efforts.
