A Direct Line Blog

By Donya Parrish, MCU VP- Risk Management

Last week, NCUA held an important meeting, their inaugural Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Summit. It sounded like an amazing day of recognizing that credit unions across the country serve a wide group of consumers, but also have an obligation to lead internally with supporting varying employee groups. I thought the speech that NCUA Board Member Todd Harper gave was powerful and worth a read.

Believe it or not, Harper — who introduced himself as “the white guy who grew up in Indiana” — had a lot to say on the topic of DEI. In his speech, he shares his personal experience and growth on the topic and ends with five steps that each credit union can take to commit to the movement. They are not all easy, and they may not come without growing pains, but what better place for financial cooperatives to lead the way and look back with pride?

And, if you are looking for past blogs on the subject of diversity, we covered it in The Drive for Diversity and The Puzzle of Board Diversity. This crucial topic is not going away or getting solved any time soon.