DALLAS—Forty-three credit union professionals have become certified Credit Union Development Educators (CUDEs) after completing the intensive Credit Union Development Education (DE) Training hosted by the National Credit Union Foundation at the American Airlines Training & Conference Center in Dallas.
The training included critical lessons in cooperative principles, credit union philosophy and international development issues while incorporating challenges credit unions face today. During the recent week-long program, participants were involved in group exercises, field trips, discussions with speakers from around the credit union system, and are required to complete team projects proposing solutions for credit unions to help alleviate or eliminate challenging situations in any given area. For this class’ final case studies, participants worked through and presented solutions to critical issues that included opening an Islamic banking center, board development and recruiting including the debate over compensation, credit union solutions to predatory lending, microfinance to women in Africa, the college conundrum of helping students understand and manage student loan debt, and a small credit union merger dilemma.
The class graduates are: Craig Atkinson, Houston Highway CU; Joshua Atkinson, United Community CU; Martin Blackwood, Portland Co-Operative CU Ltd in Jamaica; Fritzy Brady, Premier Financial CU; Angie Brotherton, Gesa CU; Maggie Camacho, Colorado CU; Lynn Ciani, Numerica CU; Kristin Crellin, SchoolsFirst FCU; Michael Crowl, University FCU; David Dykes, Jr., First Family FCU; Conrad Enill, Caribbean DE Program in Trinidad and Tobago; Ricardo Flores, SCE FCU; Marlo Foltz, CUNA; Deli Frantzen, Trona Valley Community FCU; Walter Furnace, American Airlines FCU; Jon Gorman, Cornerstone Credit Union League; Scott Graffius, CUNA Mutual Group; Brian Griffith, Gesa CU; Yasmin Grullon, GTE Financial; Dale Hansard, Caprock FCU; Kate Hardwick, Roswell Community FCU; Karen Hart, Cornerstone Credit Union League; Sean Hession, Illinois Credit Union League; Al Jones, Coastal FCU; Babou Joof, GTU Coop CU Ltd in Gambia; Johanna Keller, Telco Plus CU; Choua Ly, Partner Colorado CU; Holly Markham, GTE Financial; Austin McCafferty, United Community CU; Shelli McCoy, Tarrant County CU; Giovanni Monterroso, Tinker FCU; John Murphy, Telco Plus CU; Teresa Nicolas-Briggs, Houston Highway CU; Ken Olson, Old West FCU; Lisa Pierick, CUNA; Andy Rodriguez, Peoples Trust FCU; Trish Shomion, CU Association of the Dakotas; Randy Smith, CU Insight; Ranel Smith, Montana Credit Union Network; Lee Strickhouser, Resource One CU; Jo Beth Wicks, League of Southeastern CUs; TJ Wyman, Coastal FCU, and Matthew Zumbrun, Tennessee Credit Union League.
Registration is still open with few spots left for the next 2015 DE training program, which will take place April 29-May 6, 2015 in Madison, Wis. Registration for the training can be found on the Foundation website under “How We Help>DE Training” at www.ncuf.coop.