Advancing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is a top priority of CUNA leadership and its member credit unions.

Earlier this year, former CUNA Board Chairman Maurice Smith, president/CEO of $2 billion asset Local Government Federal Credit Union in Raleigh, N.C., proposed adding diversity and inclusion as an eighth cooperative principle.

Smith leads a Diversity and Inclusion Ad Hoc Working Group of credit union leaders tasked with taking an honest look at the credit union movement through this lens.

In this episode of the CUNA News Podcast, we talk to CUNA Board Member Teresa Freeborn, president/CEO of $891 million asset Xceed Financial Credit Union in El Segundo, Calif., and three of the credit union’s board members: Mark Cunningham, Roni Crichton, and Judy Novak. They share their views on the board’s role in fostering DEI and how DEI can strengthen the credit union movement’s competitive position and social currency.

The future of credit unions “will surely depend” on diversity, Freeborn says, using statistics to back up that assessment.

“Diversity is no longer a nice thing to do at some other time, but a business imperative.”

• Listen to a CUNA News Podcast interview with Maurice Smith

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