[CircleUp] Oweesta Names New CEO

[Heidi Davis]

PRESS RELEASE


 

Contact:  Heidi Davis, (605) 342-3770; heidi at oweesta.org
<mailto:heidi at oweesta.org> 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

 

Oweesta Names New CEO to Lead Next Decade of Service to Native
Communities 

 

August 3, 2009, Rapid City, SD//  As its ten year anniversary of Native
community development and asset building rapidly approaches, First
Nations Oweesta Corporation (Oweesta) is looking to the future with a
new Chief Executive Officer at the helm, Tracey Fischer. 

 

Fischer, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, is an attorney and
previously served as Oweesta's director of the Enterprise &
Entrepreneurship Development Department, providing training and
technical assistance to Native communities.  Fischer obtained her J.D.
from Yale Law School in 1999.  She also has a B.S. in business
administration and accounting.  Fisher takes the helm from Elsie Meeks,
who stepped down as CEO of Oweesta to become the USDA Director of Rural
Development for South Dakota.  Fischer has acted as interim CEO since
Meeks stepped down and officially takes the helm on August 1, 2009. 

 

"It is an honor to accept this position with Oweesta. I stand firmly
behind our mission to help build strong Native institutions and programs
and promote economic sovereignty in Native communities. I believe that
my legal and financial background will assist me in leading the
organization into its second decade of service to Native people,"
Fischer said.

 

Fisher also noted how grateful she was to continue on the path struck by
Meeks. "Elsie's dedication and enthusiasm for empowering tribes through
economic and community development was an inspiration and we will
continue to grow and expand the work that she began." 

 

Prior to law school Fischer worked as a lender for Norwest Bank (now
Wells Fargo) and as an auditor for the South Dakota Department of Labor.
She has also taught as an adjunct professor at the University of South
Dakota School of Law on Indian Country economic development and at
Oglala Lakota College in Eagle Butte, South Dakota, on tribal governance
issues.  In addition to her legal and Native economic development work,
Fischer also served as the Executive Director of the South Dakota Equal
Justice Commission, which was created by the South Dakota Supreme Court
to identify and address the disparate treatment of minorities in the
South Dakota Judicial System.  

 

Fischer's legal background includes experience representing tribal
corporations and tribal governments on such issues as legal and physical
infrastructure development, financial and real estate transactions, and
tribal/state relations.  She worked with the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe
and other Northern Plains tribes.  She also serves as of-counsel with
the law firm of Fredericks, Peebles, and Morgan, L.L.P., a national
Indian law firm based in Omaha, Nebraska. 

 

###

About Oweesta 

Oweesta (http://www.oweesta.org <http://www.oweesta.org/> ) is a
certified Native CDFI intermediary, providing Native communities with
loans, investments, technical assistance, training and community
development information.  Its mission is to provide opportunities for
Native people to develop assets and create wealth by assisting in the
establishment 

of strong, permanent institutions and programs, leading to economic
independence and strengthening sovereignty for all Native communities.

 

 

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