Meet Cathie Tierney: 2027 Herb Wegner Memorial Award Winner

“She imagines a road where there is none and then builds it.”
Sarah Wainscott, President & CEO, The Wisconsin Credit Union League

 

For nearly 50 years, Cathie Tierney has built a career around a simple belief: when something matters to credit union members, you find a way.

Sometimes that has meant finding a way to help a small credit union continue serving its members. Sometimes it has meant opening new doors to financial education. Sometimes it has meant bringing the credit union voice into conversations with policymakers and regulators. And once, it meant taking on the IRS.

Cathie began her career at Community First Credit Union in 1976 as a receptionist and teller. She learned every facet of the organization before becoming President and CEO in 1994, taking the helm as a young woman in an industry where relatively few women occupied the CEO chair. Under her leadership Community First has grown from $156 million in assets and 48,000 members to more than $6.4 billion in assets and 166,000 members.

But Cathie’s impact reaches well beyond the growth of one credit union. It is found throughout the movement she has spent a lifetime helping to protect and strengthen.

Standing up for the movement

In 2006, Community First faced a $54,000 unrelated business income tax assessment from the IRS on income associated with products including credit life and disability insurance and guaranteed auto protection.

Cathie saw something much bigger than a tax bill. She saw a challenge to products designed to protect members, and an issue that could affect state-chartered credit unions across the country.

What followed became a landmark legal battle over the application of unrelated business income tax to state-chartered credit unions. Cathie and Community First took on the IRS and won.

Sarah Wainscott, President & CEO of The Wisconsin Credit Union League, described it as a “David versus Goliath” fight whose impact extended far beyond Wisconsin. The victory benefited state-chartered credit unions nationwide.

It was advocacy at its most consequential: not simply making the case for credit unions, but being willing to stand behind that case when the stakes were high. And it was hardly the last time Cathie would carry the credit union story into the rooms where decisions are made.

Throughout her career, she has built relationships with lawmakers and regulators and championed a strong dual-charter system, including through her service as a board member and past chair of the National Association of State Credit Union Supervisors (NASCUS). She also participated in the Governmental Affairs Committee and served on the Community Depository Institution Advisory Committee of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

Through those roles, she has helped shape conversations around regulation, monetary policy, the credit union tax status and the future of community-based financial institutions. But perhaps what makes Cathie’s advocacy so effective is that it begins with the people the institution exists to serve.

Chuck Fagan, President & CEO of Velera, has watched Cathie continually bring those conversations back to their purpose: the people credit unions serve. “Time and again, I have witnessed her redirect discussions back to the human impact of our decisions, ensuring that members are never an afterthought.”

Strengthening the movement from within

Cathie’s belief in the credit union model has also meant helping other credit unions succeed. When smaller Wisconsin credit unions have faced operational challenges, leadership gaps, or uncertain futures, Cathie has repeatedly stepped forward. Community First has entered management agreements, shared expertise, and helped organizations navigate extraordinarily difficult transitions.

In one instance, Community First committed months of senior staff time to help a neighboring credit union whose CEO was unexpectedly absent. When the work uncovered deeper challenges and it became clear the credit union could not remain independent, Cathie faced a choice: walk away or find a solution that protected members, employees and the cooperative system.

She found a way. That approach has become so synonymous with Cathie’s leadership that Wainscott returned to Community First’s mantra throughout her nomination, We’ll find a way!

Building something worth protecting

Ask the people who know Cathie what distinguishes her, and the conversation quickly moves away from financial performance, policy victories or even the organizations she has led. It moves to people.

That commitment to people has also meant simply showing up. During COVID, fires, floods and other moments of crisis, Cathie has made it a priority to be present with employees, members and communities navigating uncertainty. For Cathie, leadership has never been something practiced only from a boardroom.

“This is Cathie’s differentiator: the impact of her skills and experience is magnified by the heart and feeling she brings to every interaction,” said Kim Sponem, President & CEO of Summit Credit Union.

Cathie has mentored generations of credit union professionals, invested in emerging leaders and consistently used her influence to create opportunities for others. When she was named one of American Banker’s 25 Most Powerful Women in Credit Unions in 2024, she dedicated the recognition to Community First’s hundreds of employees.

It is fitting, then, that when Cathie reflects on receiving the Herb Wegner Memorial Award, she once again turns the recognition toward the people and movement that shaped her journey. “The credit union movement has given me the extraordinary privilege of spending my life doing work I love, alongside people who share a belief in the power of people helping people,” reflected Cathie. “To now be counted among the remarkable leaders who have received this award is profoundly humbling. I share this recognition with the employees, members, volunteers, mentors and colleagues who have shaped and inspired me throughout this journey.”

Cathie Tierney has helped build a stronger credit union, strengthened communities, helped smaller cooperatives survive and shaped organizations that serve credit unions nationwide. And when the movement itself needed defending, she was willing to stand up for it.

That is the legacy of Cathie Tierney, recipient of the 2027 Herb Wegner Memorial Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement. Her story deserves to be celebrated. Find a way to join us for the 2027 Foundation Gala and secure your ticket, table, or explore sponsorship opportunities today.