Tawney Brunsch, Executive Director, Loan Portfolio Manager, brings eight years of experience to Lakota Funds as Black Hills Federal Credit Union Wall branch manager, where she successfully juggled duties as loan officer, member service representative, teller, branch security manager, collection officer, and staff motivator. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Commercial Economics at South Dakota State University in 1988 where she was active in Econ Club and graduated with Omicron Delta Epsilon honors.

While BHFCU branch manager, Tawney was an active board member with Wall Neighborhood Housing Services (WNHS), an organization that strives to create opportunities for people to live in affordable homes, and improve their lives while strengthening their communities. Tawney helped organize community events like Paint the Town, where volunteers paint a needy homeowner’s house early in the summer; Treasures and Trash for Cash, a large city wide rummage sale meant to encourage homeowners to join together to spruce up their neighborhoods; and Warm and Safe, a project to assist elderly and otherwise needy homeowners with weather proofing their homes in the fall. She was honored to be named WNHS Volunteer of the Year in 2007. She also served on the Economic Development Committee in Wall and is a certified VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) volunteer.

Tawney grew up on a ranch south of Interior on the Pine Ridge Reservation, is an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and is proud to call the Badlands home. She is grateful to have raised her three sons on a ranch north of Wall in rural eastern Pennington County for twenty years, and is equally happy to return home to the reservation where she lives now at the base of Eagle Nest Butte.