Tonya (Fugere) Stende was born to Gary and Virginia Fugere in Fargo, ND. Tonya grew up in West Fargo with her parents and her lifelong best friend and sister Kim in West Fargo. They lived in the same house until she moved away to college. Tonya graduated in 1990 from West Fargo High School. In high school she was involved in girls basketball and was a cheerleader for boys basketball but was especially involved in all things that were fun. Sometimes too much fun according to her parents. Upon graduation she moved far away (across the river) and enrolled into MSUM and earned a degree in accounting.

After graduating college Tonya passed her CPA exam and worked as an auditor for Eide Bailly. It took her 7 years – but she eventually realized numbers were not her passion but developing people was and that is when she embarked on the journey of co-owning the Dale Carnegie Franchise for the state of ND and NW MN for 17 years. It was when she became the franchisee of Dale Carnegie where she became passionate about women’s leadership and volunteering in the community. Tonya was one of the co-founders of the United Way of Cass Clay 35 under 35 Leadership Program which has had over 400 graduates. Tonya also helped launch and was the first chair of the board of Women Connect through the Fargo Moorhead West Fargo Chamber. There have been over 26,000 attendees since 2014. Tonya also passionately served as the United Way of Cass Clay Campaign Chair. She was also humbled when she received YWCA Woman of the Year in the area of volunteerism. Tonya currently serves on her college alumni board at MSUM. She recently started Stende Consulting and has one employee, her husband who works for a fair wage…Free.

Tonya is married to Dave and is the proud bonus mom to Hannah and Thomas and son-in-law Ross. Tonya has lived in Fargo the last 28 years and recently she and her husband purchased a place in the one and only 58078. She believes life is too short to not enjoy what you are doing. So find your passion and most importantly laugh often.