“Women are always stronger and braver together. As a community, we are unstoppable, and we must model that for young women.” - Dr. Elizabeth Lindsey
Dr. Elizabeth Kapu’uwailani Lindsey is an adventurer and a wayfinder, and the first Polynesian Explorer and woman Fellow in the history of the National Geographic Society. Raised by Hawaiian elders, Dr. Lindsey is a cultural anthropologist committed to learning from indigenous people before they are gone. She has journeyed to some of the most remote places on Earth. In Micronesia, she traveled with navigator-priests sailing thousands of miles without the use of maps or instruments. She studied the survival skills of Moken sea nomads in the Andaman Sea, who averted danger during the 2004 tsunami by observing the behavior of the animals around them.
Living with New Zealand’s Maori elders, Q’ero priests of Peru and chi kung masters in China’s temple caves, Dr. Lindsey saw that these women’s power came from marrying intuition and logic, and that women were the glue that bound communities together and inspired them to reach for a purpose larger and more lasting than themselves. Today, this is her mission: Empower women to build a stronger, more sustainable future together.
Through her TED Talks, writing and entrepreneurship, Dr. Lindsey expresses her commitment to sustainability for the planet, respect for indigenous people, and belief in the catalytic power of strengthening women and girls. She wanted her investment portfolio to reflect these values. And she wanted a woman to oversee it—collaboratively. Led by Meredith Shuey Etherington, Dr. Lindsey’s Brown Advisory team built a portfolio that is focused on achieving her financial objectives and is aligned with her personal mission. “Until I met Meredith, I didn’t have a language for finance, and I felt woefully incompetent. Meredith placed a metaphoric arm around me and let me know that my Brown Advisory team is a safe space for me to come with questions that I don’t even know how to formulate.”