Alexis Bunten-Naficy

Alexis Bunten (Unangan/Yup'ik) is Co-Director of the Bioneers Indigeneity Program and a General Partner at JumpScale, where she helps organizations integrate Indigenous values and regenerative practices into how they do business. For more than twenty years she has worked across the worlds of Indigenous-led economic development, organizational decolonization, and cross-cultural communication, supporting Native entrepreneurs, tribes, foundations, and mission-driven companies in building enterprises that strengthen community and ecosystem alike.

Her path into this work began in Alaska, where she held programming roles at the Sealaska Heritage Institute and the Alaska Native Heritage Center after earning a BA in Art History from Dartmouth College. She went on to complete a PhD in Cultural Anthropology at UCLA and to serve as Project Ethnographer for the Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage project and as a Senior Researcher at the FrameWorks Institute. That blend of community grounding and academic depth has shaped a body of work known for its rigor, its accessibility, and its honesty about who economic systems serve and who they leave out.

Alexis is also a widely published author and media-maker. Her 2015 book, So, how long have you been Native? Life as an Alaska Native Tour Guide, received the Alaska Library Association Award, and her follow-up anthology, Indigenous Tourism Movements, was published by the University of Toronto Press in 2018. She co-authored the children's picture book Keepunumuk: Weeâchumun's Thanksgiving Story with Danielle Greendeer and Anthony Perry, and her writing on Indigenous and environmental issues appears in academic journals and mainstream outlets alike. Her work has been recognized by the National Science Foundation, Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Bristol Bay Native Corporation, and the Native American Film and Television Awards, among others.

A frequent speaker at conferences and convenings around the world, Alexis is known for translating Indigenous worldviews into practical guidance for leaders trying to build regenerative organizations. She lives in Monterey, California, and brings to every stage a clear conviction that the future of business depends on remembering what older economies have always known about reciprocity, relationship, and the long view.