HARRISBURG, Penn.–The Pennsylvania Credit Union Association has honored two people for their career achievements.
The PCUA has presented the 2017 William Pratt Professional of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award to Cookie Yoder, while presenting the Joseph A. Moore Volunteer of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award to Barbara Criswell.
Yoder, CEO of CityCo FCU, has led the credit union since 2011, and was CEO at Pittsburgh FCU from 1990 to 2011.
The PCUA said Yoder has played an active role in the Pittsburgh Chapter from 1979 through 2012, holding the positions of secretary, vice president, and president, has served as a member of the PCUA board, and was a founding member of the Pennsylvania Credit Union Foundation. In recognition of her more than 25 years as a director and small credit union advocate, PCUA named a scholarship in Yoder’s honor for a small credit union staff member to attend the Judge/Bradley Leadership School each year.
Recognizing her dedication to the credit union movement, Yoder has been presented with the William Noble Scholarship from PCUA, and the CUNA Outstanding Youth Delegate Award, as well as named a CU Rockstar.
“Her passion for credit unions and helping small credit unions is evident in her many roles in the movement throughout the years,” said Visionary FCU CEO Wendy Kingsland, who nominated Yoder for the award. “When you think of small credit unions and people helping people, no better person fills the role of passionate credit union pioneer than my dear friend, Cookie Yoder.”
Criswell, board director at Service 1st FCU, has been serving the credit union as a member of the board of directors intermittently since 1975, including as board president. After a brief break from Service 1st, she came back as part of the supervisory committee, where she volunteered from 1978 to 1980. Since then, she has served as a board director beginning in 1985 and continues to support the credit union to this day, the PCUA said.
According to the PCUA, Criswell has long supported Service 1st’s ventures, including its move to open the first high school credit union branch in Pennsylvania. Criswell was also a proponent of the partnership with AFYA SACCO in Nairobi, Kenya, which featured credit union executives from AFYA visiting Service 1st and Service 1st executives visiting Kenya.
“Over the past 40 years, Barbara has helped guide and grow Service 1st to $280 million in assets, serving over 25,000 members in a seven-county region,” said Service 1st FCU President and CEO Bill Lavage. “She was adamant that members be at the heart of every decision that was made, from adding mortgages to the product offerings in the late 1990s to building a Corporate Center in 2010 and purchasing property for Service 1st's tenth branch location that opened in 2016.”
The award winners will be honored at the Association's annual convention, Connect 2018, on May 21.