ALPHARETTA, Ga.–The African American Credit Union Coalition will present its highest honors today during a ceremony in conjunction with its annual meeting, and the CU Daily spoke with three of the winners over what the award means to them.
The recognition, formerly known as the Trailblazer Award, was renamed the Maurice R. Smith DEI Leadership Award in honor of the retired CEO of both Local Government Federal Credit Union (LGFCU) and Civic Federal Credit Union, Maurice R. Smith.
Honors for Maurice Smith
During his career, Smith was recognized with numerous awards himself, including the 2021 DEI Trailblazer Award, 2019 Pete Crear Lifetime Achievement Award and 2017 African American Credit Union Hall of Fame from the AACUC, as well as 2023 Greg Inman Servant Leadership Award from CUNA, the 2022 Advancing Equity Award from the Carolinas Credit Union Foundation and 2020 Herb Wegner Memorial Award from the National Credit Union Foundation.
The Winners
This year’s six award winners include:
- Carlos Calderon, President and CEO, OAS Federal Credit Union
- Ronaldo Hardy, President/CEO, Balance
- Susan Mitchell, CEO, Mitchell, Stankovic & Associates
- Jim Morrell, CEO, Peninsula Credit Union
- George Ombado, Executive Director/CEO, ACCOSCA
- Joe Thomas, Executive President, Apple Federal Credit Union
The CU Daily spoke with three of the winners during the recent World Credit Union Conference about the honor:
George Ombodo, executive director, CEO ACCOSCA, Kenya, Africa
“I’m honored with this award, because when you talk about inclusivity, diversity and equity, it’s truly what symbolizes the credit union philosophy. And it shows that credit unions have no boundaries, from America to Africa, to Canada to the Caribbean, we all are doing the same thing to empower people.”
Jim Morrell, CEO, Peninsula Credit Union, Shelton, Wash.
“It is an incredible honor to be able to be able to be put in the same category as Maurice Smith for doing things I think about every day: just treating people well and creating a sense of belonging to make a difference in people’s financial lives. That’s what we try to do at Peninsula Credit Union, and to be recognized by AACUC is an incredible honor.”
Joe Thomas, Executive President, Apple FCU, Fairfax, Va.
“It is the most incredible honor to be nominated and receive the Maurice J. Smith Lifetime Achievement Award. The man is an icon in credit unions and no one is able to represent the importance of diversity and inclusion better than what Maurice has done. I’m just absolutely honored to be in the same sentence and receive an award named after him.”
