Named to Essence Magazines “50 Entrepreneurs to Watch” list, Jessica Norwood is an author, entrepreneur, investor, artist, and philanthropist who has spent her career exploring the ways that money can be an expression of repair and spiritual care. As the founder and CEO of RUNWAY, she leads alongside a powerhouse team of women of color who are committed to resourcing Black founders by providing start-up capital and nurturing their ongoing success.
Jessica is widely recognized for her financial activism and commitment to leadership and learning, including being a winner of the prestigious Nathan Cummings Foundation Fellowship, Center for Economic Democracy fellow, Just Economy Institute’s Integrated Capital Fellowship, Common Future Fellow for local economies and a lifelong Fellow of the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University and Southern University College of Business for Emerging Leaders, as well as the Political Power and Social Change Fellow of the Hip Hop Archive at the Hutchins Center of Harvard University.
Jessica is a former board member of the famed Highlander Research and Education Center, the same place that trained Dr. King, and is also trained in nonviolence organizing, anti-racism and popular education facilitation. Her leadership in these programs has deeply informed groundbreaking work on restorative and reparative economies and Black entrepreneurship. Jessica’s work has been profiled on NPR and Bloomberg Television, and in Essence Magazine, Next City, Fast Company, and Conscious Company. New York Times best-seller Edgar Villanova, author of Decolonizing Wealth, considers believe-in-you money the “medicine” modern philanthropy and investment need.
Jessica was raised in Alabama, where she continues to work. Her career and approach to reparative economics has been deeply informed by her roots in Chicago, Oakland, and Boston. She currently lives in Kingston, Jamaica where she continues to deepen her commitment and investment in Black joy and liberation across the diaspora. Having lived all over the world, Jessica has found that her heart sings most when at the beach, next to big water.
Jessica is the author of Believe-in-You Money: What Would the Economy Look Like if it Loved Black People? and co-host of Road to Repair, a podcast exploring our journey out of a business as-usual economy toward justice, healing, and liberation.
