The Global Women’s Leadership Network celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.
The network was set up in 2009 as special programme run by the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) to facilitate greater gender balance among leadership roles.
Since then, the network has grown to include more than 2,600 female and male members and nearly 100 sister societies across 18 countries. It has provided 52 scholarships to women from 22 countries, and raised over US $2.5m to make a difference for women involved in credit unions and their families.
“Congratulations to all our volunteers and supporters for the incredible momentum in 2018,” said Susan Mitchell, founding chair of the network, CEO of Mitchell, Stankovic & Associates and recipient of the 2018 Herb Wegner Memorial Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement.
She was speaking at the recent GWLN strategic planning session with sister society leaders. “We need to think big in 2019 to grow our membership and build our brand to create scale that will enhance our impact locally and globally,” she added.
At the session the network announced Andrea Rusnak, VP of account management at PSCU as the winner for the 2018 Emerging Leader Award, which recognises the accomplishments of an emerging female leader working in the credit union movement.
The award will be presented at the Global Women’s breakfast event at the 2019 CUNA Governmental Affairs Conference in Washington on 13 March. The event will also award four male leaders who have contributed to the network through outreach initiatives, fundraising projects and general commitment to the cause.
The four recipients of the special recognition are: David Doss, CEO, OneAZ Credit Union; Brad Houle, CEO, CAHP Credit Union; Joseph Schroeder, CEO, Ventura County Credit Union; and Michael Stankovic, partner, Mitchell, Stankovic & Associates.
