Draft:Jessica Norwood

Jessica Norwood is a financial activist, entrepreneur, impact investor, artist, and philanthropist known for founding RUNWAY, formerly known as The Runway Project, an organization that provides early-stage funding for Black entrepreneurs.

Norwood is trained in nonviolence organizing, anti-racism, and popular education facilitation. She is also a former board member of Highlander Research and Education Center, a social justice leadership training school and cultural center where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. trained.

Norwood is a native of Prichard, Alabama.

RUNWAY
RUNWAY is a "financial innovation firm" that provides capital and other business support for Black entrepreneurs. The mission of RUNWAY is "to advance resiliency for Black businesses and the communities they serve by building emergent financial practices and infrastructure that close the racial wealth gap."

Norwood is on the Advisory Committee for Emergent Strategy Ideation Institute, and is a principal member at ZEAL, a worker-owned creative agency and social impact collaborative that develops strategies to build community wealth.

Writing
Norwood is the author of Believe-In-You-Money: What Would It Look Like If the Economy Loved Black People?, a book that discusses the systemic failures surrounding Black wealth building.

Research
Norwood has conducted research on how racism influences Black women’s use of reproductive health care services. The abstract for the publication she co-authored titled “Racism Runs Through It: Examining The Sexual And Reproductive Health Experience Of Black Women In The South” summarizes how racism–both structural and individual–influences Black women’s reproductive health care access, utilization, and experience.

The study discusses how institutional racism affected participants’ finances and led some to forgo reproductive health care or face barriers to obtaining care. The study found that individual racism resulted in some women electing to receive care only from same-race medical providers. The research findings suggest a need for policies and practices that address structural barriers to reproductive health care access and improve the reproductive health experience of Black women.

Podcasting
In December 2021, Norwood launched a podcast called Road to Repair with co-hosts Nikishka Iyengar, a social entrepreneur and sustainability strategist, and Andrew X, a writer and independent consultant.

Road to Repair has featured several guests including author and poet adrienne maree brown, and food sovereignty activist Leah Penniman.

Speaking Engagements
Norwood has spoken at various events including Net Impact, Social Capital Markets (SOCAP), Community Capital (COCAP), Slow Money, Social Venture Institute, and Social Venture Circle.

Other Work
Recognized for her financial activism, Jessica was a former Fellow at the Center for Economic Democracy in Boston, Massachusetts; winner of the Nathan Cummings Foundation Fellowship ; a Political Power Fellow with the Hip Hop Archive & Research Institute at the Hutchinson Center at Harvard University ; an Integrated Capital Fellow at the Just Economy Institute in San Francisco, California ; a Fellow at Common Future in Oakland, California; a member of the board of directors for the Highlander Research and Education Center ; and an Emerging Leaders Fellow at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.

Recognition and awards
Norwood has received numerous awards and honors for her work, including being named “50 Black Women Founders To Watch” in 2020 by Essence Magazine