Tressa Lacy is Co-Founder of Undaunted Women, a nonprofit that advocates with Afghan women to identify and overcome their barriers to self-reliance. She is an adjunct accounting professor at Brigham Young University Idaho and founder of Tressa Accounting and Business Solutions, her business consulting company.
Tressa is the mother of five children, ages four to 14, two of them adopted children who are experiencing special needs.
Tressa’s early path was not an easy one. At the age of five, she began stacking boards in the family’s logging business. Just four years later, she was wielding a chainsaw. At fourteen, after enduring attempted rapes and leg-shattering logging injuries, Tressa chose a more positive path forward—through education and community engagement.
With a master’s degree in accounting from the University of Washington Tacoma, Tressa now encourages other women to rise to their potential, generating financial infrastructure in impoverished communities.
Tressa is the recipient of many honors including Zonta International’s Women in Business Scholar; Puget Sound Business Journal-Lytle Enterprises Woman of Influence scholarship; American Association of University Women Career Development grant; and an Educational Foundation for Women in Accounting award.
Currently, Tressa is completing a memoir about her experiences as a child lumberjack. She also finds time to volunteer as Administrative Vice President of Undaunted Women and Secretary of the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of the Institute of Management Accountants.
Sessions
The Afghanistan Crisis: How Undaunted Women is Supporting Afghan Refugees