Reparative Capital As An Investment Strategy
Jessica Norwood in Conversation with Allison Thomas
Wednesday, September 2, 2026
4 - 5 PM PST / 5 - 6 PM MST / 6–7 PM CST / 7 - 8 pm EST
Reparative Capital As An Investment Strategy, a Virtual Salon
Wednesday, September 2, 2026
7 - 8 pm EST
Jessica Norwood in Conversation with Allison Thomas
Join us for an intimate conversation between Jessica Norwood and Allison Thomas, hosted by Naima McQueen — examining how reparative capital works in practice, why it outperforms extractive investment models, and what it demands of everyone in the room.
Jessica will draw on the living proof of the ROOTED Fund — over a million dollars deployed, a 100% repayment rate, and zero defaults — to make the case that trust-based, community-underwritten capital is not just a moral imperative. It is a viable and replicable economic model.
Our Speakers
Jessica Norwood
Jessica Norwood is a financial activist, investor, and founder of RUNWAY Roots whose work redefines risk, rewrites the terms of capital access, and demonstrates through the ROOTED Fund that reparative investment is a viable and replicable economic model.
Founder and CEO, RUNWAY Roots
Allison Thomas
Allison Thomas descends from enslavers in colonial Virginia, including Robert Carter who died the richest man in Virginia enslaving more than 1000 people over his lifetime and his grandson Carter Braxton who signed the Declaration of Independence despite being an enslaver himself. She is currently writing about her journey to reckon with her true family history, excavate her whiteness, connect with descendants of people enslaved by her family, collaborate on reparative actions, and spend down her inheritance. She worked with her linked descendants to gain approval for a historic highway marker about the Black community on Gwynn’s Island in Mathews County in southwestern Virginia (www.gwynnsislandproject.com).
Investor
Naima McQueen is a weaver of stories and experiences, convener, and strategist. She is a lover of people and systems AND people as systems and is driven by the passion, ideas and joy of others and the process of bringing those to actualization.
Managing Director, RUNWAY Roots