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Wanda is Bear Clan, Kanien’keha, Skarù rę’ and Anishinabeg.

In the past 20 years, her Western philanthropic journey grew from pre-school volunteering, to donor, to implementing her firm’s corporate social responsibility model. In founding a high-tech firm, she realized she could practice her Longhouse values in an urban setting and work for the collective good through philanthropy.

Following this, she formalized her career by becoming the Executive Director of The Circle on Philanthropy and Aboriginal Peoples in Canada. She continued volunteering as a board member with national foundations, including Reconciliation Canada.

Over the past three years, her approach to advising Indigenous and non-Indigenous charities and foundations has shifting the narrative from deficit to the truth of abundance and forming trust models.

In 2020, as the pandemic unfolded, she knew Indigenous communities would face barriers by philanthropy. A conversation led to creating the first Indigenous-led fund to support Indigenous-led initiatives. Using a trust model, they raised more than $14 million in unencumbered funds with 29 partners.

What draws her to MPNL program is to further grow in this field and understand Western philanthropy and to be a part of the broader conversation on Indigenous Peoples and philanthropy.

Wanda is a proud mother of three daughters, one recent graduate and two currently studying at Cornell University.