INSPIRE Leadership Series - Karen Church

Description

The INSPIRE Leadership Speaker Series is a suite of thought-provoking presentations featuring community experts sharing their wisdom on various aspects of leadership. Topics could range from servant leadership to casting a vision and making it stick. We’re leaving it open for our speakers to decide. We believe the community at large will benefit greatly from gathering with the purpose of being able to hear from and ask questions of a few of our regions’ most influential leaders. Our speakers come with a variety of experiences and expertise as it relates to leadership. We hope that you will join us to hear and learn from their work and insight, as they INSPIRE Leadership in 2019. 

Speaker: Karen Church, CEO, Elga Credit Union 

Karen was introduced to the credit union philosophy of “People Helping People” working a co-op position at ELGA Credit Union her senior year in high school.  Returning to ELGA Credit Union full time in 1978 she further developed her credit union career and was named CEO in 1993.  Karen has seen ELGA Credit Union grow from a one branch, three million dollar credit union with five employees, to a nearly $700 million, 11 branch credit union employing over 200 associates.  She is especially proud of her associates as they are truly committed to serving others. They work to improve member’s financial well-being while building lifelong relationships.  Karen is involved and encourages others to be involved in the communities served.  Collectively, ELGA CU Associates provided over 3,200 personal hours of service to cover a multitude of events in 2018.   She serves as a director for the Michigan Credit Union League, CUSolutions Group, and Catholic Charities, Chairs the Finance Committee of St. Francis Xavier Church, is a member of Zonta Flint and the Advisory Board of the Community Foundation’s Women and Girls Fund.  She grew up as the eldest of seven children, has been blessed with a great marriage to Duane for the past 40 years, and has two terrific children, both Michigan State University alumni.  She is also a devoted grandmother and loves spending time with her ever expanding family.