craigdailypress.com

Tami Fager is the only female manager in her company, a published author, an entrepreneur, and will soon earn a master's degree.

She also is petrified to drive in the city and has never flown on an airplane.

Craig is the largest town she has ever lived in, but the Colorado native has sought out opportunities in every aspect of her life, and capitalized on all of them.

"I just want to continue climbing," said the 41-year-old branch manager for First National Bank of the Rockies in Hayden. "The opportunities are endless, and I want to try and set an example for my daughter."

The mom-daughter relationship between Fager and her 16-year-old daughter, Jacqlyn, is a challenge, she admits, but the most enjoyable of all the challenges in her life.

In the two years since Fager and her family moved to Craig from Yuma, Colo., she and her husband, Lonnie, have both taken promotions in Hayden.

They commute together every day, and Fagar jokes it's the most conversation they have had in years.

She said despite the daily trek, they would never move to Hayden. "We call (Craig) our ultimate heaven," she said.

Fager's recent promotion to branch manager is merely one step on her journey in the business world. She is obtaining a master's degree in business administration and finance through Regis University, which she hopes will help her obtain her next goal of becoming regional manager.

Fagar is the only female manager in the nine First National Bank of the Rockies branches, an accomplishment she said is important to her because it is one way she can set an example for all women.

"It hasn't been easy and there are a lot of obstacles," she said. "But I want to show (women) what they can accomplish."

A true believer in community involvement, Fager puts her business skills to good use at a variety of local organizations.

She is helping found a business association in Hayden, serving as a board member at Horizons, and is on the advisor council at CNCC. She also has started her own accounting and mortgage company, and has taught at community colleges around Colorado. Teaching at CNCC in Craig is possibility in her future.

It would seem that Fager has her hands full, but she said there is always a passion in her life that serves as an outlet for all the others -- writing. "Sometimes something just hits me and I have to get up and write," she said.

The published author of short stories and poetry said her ultimate goal is to write a novel someday.

"But I have no idea what about," she said.

When she does take a vacation, she said her family always goes camping. But once she completes her master's degree and her daughter graduates from high school she plans on flying on a plane, and seeing the ocean -- two things this rural girl has never done.

But for now she said, "I wouldn't change a minute and I can't wait for the next day to start." \