Alexa Creelman

The working group sprang from the bi-weekly member roundtable meetings that Central 1 began holding through the COVID-19 pandemic. The member roundtable is a peer-to-peer bi weekly discussion with topics generated by and for credit union executives. One such topic was the Black Lives Matter movement, the working group was formed by credit unions that wanted to take that conversation further. As a working group, we recognize that Human Resource departments play a critical role in the DEI discussion, but we’ve also noticed the conversation often falls short of expanding beyond that. A key focus of the group is a desire to look at the default settings of our cultures, strategies, and operations to ensure credit unions are reducing barriers and enabling financial wellness for all communities, with a specific lens to groups that society marginalizes.