As women in banking, it is important that we lift each other up and celebrate each other’s accomplishments. The entire purpose of the Girl Banker blog is to do just that! The Girl Banker of the Week series serves as a way to highlight Girl Bankers everywhere by telling their stories and motivating and encouraging other women in banking. It also is a great way for women in banking to connect! Read below about this week’s Girl Banker of the Week! Kelsey Stupfell | Director of Community Reinvestment | TS Banking Group I first had the pleasure of meeting Kelsey after presenting at the Women in Ag Banking Networking Breakfast at the American Bankers Association National Ag Banking Conference in Omaha, Nebraska last November. Since then I have enjoyed following her on social media and feel that we have a lot in common given both of us are living and breathing our family farms and raising our kids when we aren't at the bank. Here is her story. Girl Banker Story Banking was the furthest thing from Kelsey Stupfell's mind in terms of a career choice. But as with most women in banking, life took a path she didn't expect and banking chose her.  In 2007, Kelsey graduated college in the spring and headed home to Treynor, Iowa after being asked by Judy Guttau, Secretary of the TS Banking Group Board to sing at a special event for the bank. While there, she made the pitch that she was graduating and looking for a job. Little did she know that during the performance, Judy had leaned over to her son, Josh Guttau, TS Banking Group CEO and said, “I’d like to slowly retire, so I think we should hire Kelsey.”  After a series of interviews, Kelsey received a call from Josh asking if she would consider a new job at TS Banking Group. Ironically, it was Kelsey's love of music that ultimately opened the door to banking. Since that bank event, Kelsey has learned that banking has a lot of moving parts.  From talent development, business intelligence, data science and business process improvement, the roles banking has to offer can be interesting and challenging! Kelsey currently serves as Director of Community Reinvestment at TS Banking Group. She leads the community reinvestment strategy across the company, including 10 locations in Iowa, North Dakota, and Illinois with a primary focus of corporate giving toward financial literacy.  Kelsey is a brand ambassador and works alongside the company’s business units to help execute market specific giving, volunteerism opportunities and create a valued-added client impact.  TS Banking Group is dedicated to community prosperity and reinvests 10% of its net income back to the community through outreach, non-profit donations, and event sponsorships.  Collectively, over $1.5 million dollars has been reinvested in their communities over the last three years.

TS Banking Group is a joint venture between Treynor Bancshares, Inc., the bank holding company of Treynor State Bank (TS Bank), and the newly formed bank holding company, TS Contrarian Bancshares, Inc. TS Banking Group and two affiliated bank holding companies are headquartered in Treynor, Iowa, near the Omaha, Nebraska MSA, and has nearly 1 billion in assets. Over fifty percent of the company’s giving is designated to the TS Institute, the non-profit arm of TS Banking Group committed to creating a stronger, more financially, savvy future generation through a K-12 financial literacy program.  Since its inception in 2009, TS Institute has impacted over 90,000 students and community members through student banking programs, classroom workshops, teacher trainings and various community events.

I think it is powerful that TS Banking Group reinvests 10% of its pre-tax profits back to the communities – not because we have to, but because we want to.  A large majority of our community reinvestment is for financial literacy efforts.  While we give monetarily, giving of our time and talent is equally important.  TS Banking Group employees are offered 50 hours of volunteer time off to use annually.  We want to ignite prosperity in all the communities that we serve and we feel that’s part of everyone’s responsibility.  I just know the harder I work, the more we are then able to give back.  Having a collective mission like this really gets people excited and truly makes a difference in our communities. I am so grateful in my role to be able to tangibly see our core values in action.  I am very passionate about our giving philosophy and ways to bring our company “why” to life each day.  We are a company of many stories, and so are our clients.

Background Kelsey is a Treynor, Iowa native and a graduate of Treynor High School. She is a graduate of Simpson College with a BA in Corporate Communication.  Her work experience includes over 10 years in banking with encompassing roles across the company including areas specific to community banking, human relations, and marketing.

 It excites me to work in community banking and for a company where I am part of something that is bigger than myself.  Banking just happens to be our vehicle, but we are really about impacting people’s lives. 

Kelsey is involved in her family farm business, music ministry at Harvest Community Church, on the board of directors for the following three organizations including TS Community Foundation (VP), Birthright of Council Bluffs, and Council Bluffs Guild of the Omaha Symphony (incoming President) and an alumnae member of Leadership Council Bluffs. She grew up on her family’s century farm and in 2008 married her husband, Perry, a fifth generation farmer, and together, are raising their children, Eugene, Evelyn and Charles on the Stupfell family farm which is just northwest of Treynor, Iowa.

She enjoys taking pictures of her kids, hosting dinner parties, home decorating and singing.  Kelsey loves the lifestyle farming provides for her kids and the reminder that hard work and being humble never goes out of style.  She remembers her very first job growing up was to paint her grandpa and grandma’s white picket fence and help feed the chickens. While she doesn't have a picket fence or chickens, she feels that the farm life is one of the best ways to learn life lessons! MOTIVATION | I am so thankful for my personal banking experience when I first started at the bank, where I could truly learn how banking worked.  It also gave me an inside perspective on the client and having this foundation has helped me in my other roles in the bank. I am truly humbled and honored to help serve the community that has poured so much into me.  To help make an impact in all the communities we serve in Southwest Iowa as well as in North Dakota and Illinois is very rewarding. Join me as we celebrate this week’s Girl Banker of the Week, Kelsey Stupfell!