Challenging the Status Quo for Native American Women: Stories from a Career in Film, Finance and Philanthropy

Valerie Red–Horse

Thursday, 22 Mar 2012 at 7:00 pm – Sun Room, Memorial Union

Valerie Red-Horse, of Cherokee ancestry, is a filmmaker, entrepreneur and investment banker. She has raised or assisted in more than $2 billion in financings for American Indian Tribal Projects and founded two female Native American-owned investment banks on Wall Street - one believed to be the first ever. She is also the founder and owner of Red-Horse Native Productions, which collaborates with tribal nations to bring Native stories accurately and respectfully to the screen. She is perhaps best known for her production of the PBS documentary True Whispers: The Story of Navajo Code Talkers. A graduate of UCLA and a resident of southern California, she has established the nonprofit Hollywood Access Program for Natives as well as the Bel Air Presbyterian Dance Ministry, serving women in rehabilitation in downtown Los Angeles. Part of the Women's Leadership Series.
This lecture was made possible in part by the generosity of F. Wendell Miller, who left his entire estate jointly to Iowa State University and the University of Iowa. Mr. Miller, who died in 1995 at age 97, was born in Altoona, Illinois, grew up in Rockwell City, graduated from Grinnell College and Harvard Law School and practiced law in Des Moines and Chicago before returning to Rockwell City to manage his family's farm holdings and to practice law. His will helped to establish the F. Wendell Miller Trust, the annual earnings on which, in part, helped to support this activity.

Cosponsored By:
  • American Indian Studies
  • Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics
  • Center for American Intercultural Studies
  • Center for Distance and Online Learning
  • LAS Miller Lecture Fund
  • University Committee on Diversity
  • Women & Gender Studies Program
  • Women's Leadership Consortium
  • Committee on Lectures (funded by Student Government)

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