Native Resource Development

Native Resource Development Company is a local success-story that was started from scratch on the Navajo Nation 20 years ago by a Navajo woman, Ms. Elvina D. “Penny” Emerson. Penny grew up on the Navajo Reservation and was encouraged by her mother, a nurse with the Indian Health Service, and father, a facilities engineer also with the Indian Health Service, to pursue a good college education. After graduating with a degree in Hospital Administration, Penny spent 15 years administering health and human service-oriented programs for the Navajo Nation and for other Native American Tribes in the western US. Then, in 1990, she recognized a huge unmet need on the Navajo Nation – the problem of transporting elderly and disabled patients to their medical appointments. To address this need, Penny put her education, experience, and entrepreneurial spirit to work, incorporated “Native Resource Development,” opened an office in the Navajo Nation Capital in Window Rock, Arizona, and started providing non-emergency medical transport services to her first patients. The company’s transport fleet became well-known and easily recognized due to the Navajo wedding basket logo on the doors of each vehicle.

In 2003 Penny opened a home health care division, known as “Quality Home Care” that provides in-home living assistance to low-income, medically fragile elderly and disabled individuals, a service that enables them to remain in their own homes and avoid the trauma and high cost of placement outside the home.

Today, “Native Resource Development Company, Inc.” has grown into a diverse service company that employs over 350 full and part-time workers. The company is certified by the US Small Business Administration as 8(a), SDB (small disadvantaged business), HUBZone, Native American owned, and woman-owned (Penny remains the 100% owner). In 2007 the company was recognized by the SBA with an award as the “Service Company of the Year.” Ms. Emerson is a role model and source of inspiration to young Native women and men who seek to pursue a life in business, and she is a regular speaker at conferences and workshops. Penny has received numerous awards and recognitions, including Girl Scouts of America “Lifetime Achievement Award,” gives her time generously through service on Boards of Directors for educational, non-profit, and community organizations, and she has initiated and funded scholarship programs to support the education of Native women in health professions.

For more information please call our Corporate Headquarters located on the Santa Ana Pueblo, 505-867-5372