The latest from Tansley Stearns

Sep 14, 2022 - by Tansley Stearns, Community Financial Credit Union

People need people: The bridge of connection

I recently moved my family across the country for a job change. Throughout my career, as I shaped a path toward my current role, I accepted positions in different parts ...

Jul 15, 2022 - by Tansley Stearns, Community Financial Credit Union

Why impossible?

My exposure to hyperbole started early. I was raised by two people that dreamt boldly. The story of my parents’ wedding day could be made into a Cameron Crowe box ...

May 12, 2022 - by Tansley Stearns, Community Financial Credit Union

Grit alone won’t cut it: The people who walk with us

I was raised by very kind, extraordinarily gritty, and determined Midwesterners. They expected me to give my best and do the hard things first before enjoying a bit of fun. ...

Mar 3, 2022 - by Tansley Stearns, Community Financial Credit Union

What would you share with your sixth-grade self?

Over the last ten years, I have enjoyed speaking about innovation to credit unions. While it’s a topic that has been repeatedly explored, we remain an industry in need ...

Jan 13, 2022 - by Tansley Stearns, Community Financial Credit Union

Create more impact: Five focused New Year’s resolutions

Our family adopted a pug named Everest just over a year ago. Amidst her second holiday celebration with us, she grew very interested in our Christmas tree. As December 25 ...

Nov 15, 2021 - by Tansley Stearns, Community Financial Credit Union

Let’s come together and run like reindeer

In early 2019, Nature aired an episode entitled, “Wild Way of the Vikings.” This episode featured a phenomenon called a “reindeer cyclone.” As the episode description highlights, “When spooked, the ...

Sep 10, 2021 - by Tansley Stearns, Community Financial Credit Union

You are an innovator: 5 ways to leverage innovation to build your employer brand

Last week, I had the chance to visit with a participant in our Canvas Innovation Group. Our Innovation Group is an annual internal opportunity for our family members (how we ...

Jul 15, 2021 - by Tansley Stearns, Community Financial Credit Union

Credit union leaders: I challenge you

I recently returned from a week away from the office, savoring some wonderful mother-daughter time in the Colorado mountains. My daughter MacKenzie is ten years old and I’m relishing ...

Tansley Stearns

CEO
Community Financial Credit Union

Web: https://www.cfcu.org

“No” is not a word in Tansley’s vocabulary. If there is an opportunity to bolster Community Financial Credit Union and the industry at large, Tansley will jump on board as a champion regardless of other demands on her plate. To Tansley, an opportunity to connect with others and add impact is always worth the time.

Tansley puts people first. She fosters an environment to celebrate team successes and challenge one another to always reach for more in the name of taking the financial challenges that Michiganders face and improving upon them every day. Impossible is a word Tansley loves. She knows that when
we dream big, we can turn those dreams into reality, transforming financial services in unimaginable ways.

Tansley’s experience has been shaped by her more than 24 years of credit union leadership experience, including roles in research, sales, service, and government relations. Before joining Community Financial, Tansley served as chief operating officer at Canvas Credit Union, the third largest credit union in Colorado ($3.8 B), serving more than 284,000 members. In her four years at Canvas, Tansley spent every moment amplifying the credit union’s ability to change lives with her innovative marketing, brand transformation, communications, people, retail, and strategy efforts leading to the largest phase of growth within the organization’s 84-year legacy. Tansley led the people of Canvas with a bright fire and desire for greatness. This is her legacy and is passed down with every interaction to service all Coloradans.

Prior to her tenure at Canvas, Tansley was the chief impact officer at the industry’s premier think-and-do-tank, the Filene Research Institute. Tansley played a pivotal role in building bridges between credit unions, academia, and Silicon Valley. Her work has ensured that even more institutions engage with Filene’s credit union-focused, action-ready research. She also served as a leader at credit unions around the country, from her role at BestSource Credit Union, Connex Credit Union, and Bethpage Federal Credit Union for a combined 13 years, where she honed her ability to lead marketing, lending, sales, and business development initiatives along all frontline, member-facing channels. Tansley has been a pivotal addition to every community she serves, activating the credit union movement with grace and, as always, a smile.

Tansley wakes up at 3:50 a.m. every morning. You read that right...3:50 a.m. She starts her day with a Peloton ride or running and is in the office by 6:40 a.m. Tansley’s commitment to balancing well-being with her profession demonstrates her tenacity. She never gives up, whether she is running mile 22 of a marathon, wrapping up a 20-mile ride on her Peloton before starting the day, or advocating for the credit union movement.

To sum up, Tansley is near impossible, but perhaps her mobile signature says it best: “You are receiving this message from the mobile device that is attached to my hip. I’m likely simultaneously running, helping shape the future of credit unions, dancing with my daughter, and working passionately to build a better future for all Michiganders.”