A member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and White Buffalo Calf Woman Society has won a national honor recognizing her work and dedication in addressing and preventing sexual violence.

Tillie Black Bear, executive director of White Buffalo Calf Woman Society, the oldest shelter on a Native American reservation, has been awarded The National Sexual Violence Resource Center's 2009 Visionary Voice Award. Black Bear is considered a leading expert on violence against women and children.

She is a founding mother of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence and a founder of the South Dakota Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. She is the first woman of color to lead the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Black Bear has worked as a therapist, school counselor, administrator and a college instructor.