Danielle Forward
Danielle Forward is a holistic technologist, entrepreneur, and AI advisor dedicated to closing the wealth gap and economically empowering Indigenous communities through technology, entrepreneurship, and wellness. An enrolled member of the Cloverdale Rancheria of Pomo Indians and of Makahmo Pomo descent, she comes from a lineage of famous basket weavers. Danielle has carried this legacy of precision and design into the digital era, graduating as valedictorian in Interaction Design from the California College of the Arts before spending five years as a Product Designer at Meta designing software experiences used by millions.
She is the Founder and CEO of Natives Rising, an Indigenous women-led nonprofit and the nation’s largest network and workforce engine for Indigenous technology professionals. Through Natives Rising, she has raised over $2 million to place fellows at global giants like Google, Apple, and Microsoft and launch AI-enabled entrepreneurship initiatives. Danielle serves as a strategic AI advisor to Google and Tribal Governments, sits on the Women in AI & Future Technology Council for the Institute for State Effectiveness, and recently represented North American Indigenous peoples at the United Nations speaking on AI and human development. She is currently partnering with the Cherokee Nation government to deploy the country’s first AI-enhanced tribal benefits platform, establishing a model for citizen-centered digital infrastructure that improves how citizens access public benefits.
Merging Western neuroscience with Indigenous values, she is also a certified hypnotherapist transforming intergenerational trauma through the School of Intergenerational Healing to restore societal well-being. Launching this November 1st to exactly 147 students, the school's inaugural cohort is a direct, historic reclamation of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School—the first federal Indian boarding school, which opened with 147 children exactly 147 years ago on November 1, 1879. Through this somatic, self-coaching methodology, she empowers individuals to become their own healers and restore societal well-being.
