Member Spotlight: Julie Lind

CUNA Lending Council
April 19, 2010 | COMMENTS

Julie Lind is assistant vice president of consumer lending for Washington State Employee's Credit Union (WSECU) in Olympia, Washington. Born in Manhattan, Kansas, Julie moved to Washington when she was six and has lived there ever since. She has been with WSECU for almost 19 years.

“It was not originally intended to be a career path, I simply needed a job,” she says. “But I grew to admire the credit union philosophy and found myself gravitating toward lending. I was hired as a temp in the records department back in the good old days when our documents were stored on microfiche. I was fortunate enough to get hired nine months later as a full-time loan assistant and then moved up to loan officer about a year after that.”

Driven to pursue her career in lending and toward that end, Julie returned to school about a year ago with the long-term goal of earning a bachelor's degree in business administration. “It makes for some long days, but is well worth it,” she adds.

Biggest challenge

We want to continue providing products and services to our members during this time of economic pressure. We work diligently to keep delinquency down by reaching out to our members earlier, and we continue to look for opportunities to provide members with the loans that they need.

Best advice

When the task at hand seems too difficult, just remind yourself that if it was easy, everyone could do it.

Greatest benefit of Council membership

Having real-time access to a network of professionals talking about important issues that are time-sensitive.

Best part of my job

The people I work with, both staff and members.

Hardest part of my job

Keeping up with regulatory and compliance changes.

Success story

We just converted to a new LOS system at the end of March. We launched the new system to 18 branches over a six-week period. We conducted one-day training sessions and then had “super users” in each branch for the first week each branch was on the new system. We have had excellent feedback from branch staff about their learning experience the support that was provided afterwards.

Hobbies and interests

Gardening, golfing, and fishing.

Life goals not yet achieved

Bachelor's degree and marriage.

Something that always makes me laugh

My dogs, Buddy and Gizmo.

Favorite quote

"It's all about choices."

How I would explain the credit union difference to a potential new member

The best way to show the credit union difference is to have somebody experience it. I would have the person spend five minutes in our Member Solutions Department (Collections) to see how we work with our members to find solutions that work for them.