Financial Empowerment - 2nd ed.

Bettina Schneider is currently an associate professor in Indigenous Business and Public Administration at the First Nations University of Canada (FNUniv) in Regina, Saskatchewan. She has worked at FNUniv since 2007. She is non-Indigenous and originally from the United States. She has a PhD in Native American Studies and a master’s in Community Development from the University of California, Davis. Her dissertation and some of her subsequent research has focused on Indigenous financial institutions and economic development in Canada and the United States. Through this research, and her work as a consultant with the First Nations Development Institute and First Nations Oweesta Corporation in the United States, she was exposed to a number of Indigenous financial institutions and the culturally relevant financial literacy curricula they were utilizing and sharing with their communities. In 2013, thanks to a grant from the Urban Aboriginal Knowledge Network, Bettina began working with the Newo Yotina Friendship Centre (NYFC) in Regina on the development of culturally relevant financial literacy workshops, as the NYFC had identified a need for such services among its clientele. Bettina’s work with the NYFC was the catalyst for the personal finance course that was later developed at FNUniv and the adaptation of this textbook. Her research has predominantly focused on Indigenous community and economic development strategies, Indigenous financial institutions, Indigenous-relevant business and financial literacy curriculum, and First Nations financial reporting and accountability relationships.