(Des Moines, Iowa) – Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines (FHLB Des Moines) is pleased to announce that Elsie Meeks was recently re-elected as an independent director to the Bank’s board. Ms. Meeks has served on the board since 2015. She will begin serving his second term on the board starting January 1, 2019.

Elsie Meeks has more than 30 years of experience specializing in Native community development. In 2015 she retired from her position as the South Dakota state director for USDA Rural Development, a federal agency with more than 40 programs that finance rural communities to develop infrastructure, housing and business.

Prior to her position with the USDA, she served for nine years as CEO of a national Native CDFI, First Nations Oweesta Corp. Ms. Meeks was instrumental in the development and management of Lakota Funds from its start in 1986 and served as its executive director until 1999. In addition, she helped start several grassroots community development organizations on her home Indian reservation of Pine Ridge in South Dakota. She was also the first Native American to be appointed to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Ms. Meeks serves on the boards of several Native community and housing development organizations. She serves as chair of the Lakota Funds and Native American Agricultural Fund (Keepseagle Trust). She also serves as a board member of the Oglala Sioux Lakota Housing Authority.

The FHLB Des Moines Board of Directors is comprised of financial service, business and community leaders from across the Bank’s 13-state district. The board is currently made up of 24 directors: 14 member directors and 10 independent directors. 

For a full listing of the FHLB Des Moines Board of Directors, please visit the Bank’s website.

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The Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines is a wholesale cooperative bank that provides low-cost short and long-term funding and community lending to nearly 1,400 members, including commercial banks, saving institutions, credit unions, community development financial institutions and insurance companies.  The Bank is wholly owned by its members and receives no taxpayer funding.  The Des Moines Bank serves 13 states, three pacific territories and is one of 11 regional Banks that make up the Federal Home Loan Bank System.