7 Michigan CU Innovators Selected for Filene’s i3 Program
Twenty-nine of the credit union industry’s most innovative leaders come together to form the newest cohort of the Filene i3 Program. Among those 29 are seven Michigan professionals.
Filene i3 is a two-year innovation leadership program equipping top credit union professionals with the mindset, tools and network to lead and shape the credit union of the 21st Century.
“Through the i3 program, we're crafting a hub of innovation where emerging credit union leaders converge to solve pressing challenges with tomorrow's solutions,” said Filene Incubation Director Megan Freshour. “Leveraging Filene's comprehensive research and a network of passionate innovators, our participants are equipped to drive transformative change. As they forge ahead, creating prototypes and piloting initiatives, they're not just participants — they're pioneers shaping the future of financial services for communities nationwide.”
This year’s selection from Michigan are the following:
- Filip Danielewicz, Michigan State University Federal Credit Union
- Hawk Ehnes, PSCU
- Justin Haun, Community Financial Credit Union
- Karen Myers, Community Choice Credit Union
- Meredith Nicholoff, Michigan State University Federal Credit Union
- Carolyn Reou, ELGA Credit Union
- Jenn Truxell, Community Financial Credit Union
Through this cohort-based program, participants learn cutting-edge innovation competencies grounded in three core categories. By engaging the diverse perspectives of members, staff, stakeholders and subject-matter experts to co-create new solutions, participants learn skills essential for facilitating innovation. Through the process of exploring and iterating new ideas to gain insight, reduce risk and validate solutions, participants become experienced at accelerating learning. Finally, mobilizing people and resources to inspire action is practiced for leading change.
Participants create impact through their work in cross-functional teams to explore and address some of credit unions’ most pressing challenges as identified by Filene's Think Tank and backed by research from Filene's Centers of Excellence. View the findings from last year's i3 teams on five complex challenges facing credit unions.
The new i3 cohort begins a two-year development journey following Filene’s GAC Breakfast next week, and will present progress-to-date to the credit union industry at Filene’s big.bright.minds. in November.
