Her Story
About Angela
I've been in financial institutions for 18 years, with the last 13 years at Lake Trust Credit Union where I currently serve as Assistant Vice President of Talent Growth and Performance, a promotion I received in December. Before joining Lake Trust in 2013, I spent five years at Medical Mutual of Ohio as a Learning and Development Specialist in the healthcare insurance industry. One of my proudest achievements came early in my time at Lake Trust when I was brought in as a consultant during a pivotal moment - we had just become a new credit union through the merger of two previous credit unions, and we were going through a cultural evolution of who we wanted to become. I was part of the team that identified our brand promise and cultural elements like our sales and service model. To this day, we still live and breathe that - it's our North Star, our compass. We hire for culture, we coach to culture, we reward for that. Being part of the culture and engagement team at Lake Trust and being instrumental in helping to shape and figure out who we are, who we want to become, and how we want to be known in the community and how we serve our members is something that's really passionate for me. In the learning and development space, all of the programs that we design - whether it's leadership development or any professional development skills - I'm able to infuse culture into everything that we touch, even in performance reviews. I think that really helps differentiate who we are and why we're a great place to work, and why team members enjoy being with us. We are a strong partner of Gallup, and I would consider us a strength-based organization where we lead with our team members' strengths. We constantly coach to that, build programs around that, and we find that when people lead with their strengths, they're the most happy and engaged at work.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Angela
01What do you attribute your success to?
Throughout my career, I've been very fortunate to have strong women leaders my entire career, and they've always supported my journey, whether it's lifting me up, teaching me valuable lessons. The women that have been in my life have always encouraged me to stretch and grow myself, so I'm thankful for those opportunities and those women that I've learned from. My mom was a business owner, and I just learned a lot of really strong work ethic and morals from her, and just hard work and determination can take you very far. I've also learned that relationships are critical. It's the relationships you build and sustain that I believe really help carry you forward, too. I see a lot of women that feel like, I can do this on my own, but none of us are on our own, we're not on an island. We need each other in that network of how we support women, I think, is so critical, especially in today's day and age where, you know, this cancel culture of you say the wrong thing and you're out. How do we band together, look for good intention, and just make sure that we are constantly striving to just become our best versions of ourselves.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
One piece of advice that I always like to share with especially young professionals is find your voice. I think so many times I see women entering the workforce, and they just want to sit in the back and observe, and I think there's some value in that, too, please don't miss what I'm sharing, but I think sometimes women often hide, or they minimize themselves, or they feel like they don't have enough value to add to the conversation, or to add to whatever decision is being made. So that would be my piece of advice - lean on me, let me help you find your voice, I will advocate for you, but how do we kind of band together and lift each other up. As I watch young women enter the workforce, helping them to find their voice and feel confident in what they're sharing is something that's really important to me.
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