Fern Orie has worked in the housing and community development field for most of her career. As a member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, she has worked in tribal communities to further homeownership and economic opportunities for Native people. Ms. Orie served as the Executive Director of the Oneida Housing Authority for nearly four years. From there she was the Founder and CEO of the Wisconsin Native Loan Fund (WINLF) for 15 years. WINLF, a statewide Native CDFI and FHLBank Chicago member, focuses on housing, consumer, and business lending and services.

From WINLF, Ms. Orie served in the role of Chief Programs Officer, Executive Vice President of Advocacy and Strategic Partnerships at the Oweesta Corporation, a national Native CDFI intermediary, for two years. In this role, she focused on capacity building, training, technical assistance and the development of programming and strategic partnerships to support Native CDFIs nationwide. Ms. Orie also created a consulting group, The Matriarch Group LLC, in 2023 and began working with Native CDFIs providing technical assistance with lending underwriting, grant compliance, policy development, board governance training and strategic planning. Recently, Ms. Orie assumed the role of CEO of the Wisconsin Indigenous Housing and Economic Development Corporation (WIHEDC), a nonprofit 501c3 umbrella organization supporting the four Native CDFIs of Wisconsin. Ms. Orie was one of the co-founders of the organization, which was formerly known as the Wisconsin Indian Business Alliance, when she was with WINLF. Among its many initiatives, WIHEDC is currently developing a statewide/regional native homeownership coalition as part of its strategic plan to increase homeownership for indigenous people. Additionally, Ms. Orie is co-leading the Wisconsin Native Homeownership Coalition, a statewide effort to advance Native homeownership, and serves on numerous local, regional and national boards and committees within the field, including the Board of Directors of Native-owned Bay Bank.