Two GoWest Region Credit Union Leaders to Receive National Herb Wegner Memorial Award

Posted by Lynn Heider on October 23, 2024

Debbie Wege says she could write a book about the people and programs that have inspired her throughout her Credit Union Movement career. Now she’s taking her own place in history, having been announced as one of the 2025 Herb Wegner Memorial Award winners.

Established by the National Credit Union Foundation to honor the memory of Herb Wegner, a visionary financial services leader from the 1970s, the Wegner awards are considered one of the industry’s highest honors.

Wege was selected in the Outstanding Individual Achievement category. As the Cooperative Community Advocate for BECU, Wege has long been a trailblazer leading change, driving inclusion inside and outside her organization, and evangelizing credit unions.

If you’re a certified Credit Union Development Educator (CUDE), you know all about evangelizing the Movement. Wege says the program, “lit a fire in me, and there are so many fellow DEs that have inspired me to find whatever way I can to connect people to our core of who we are and what we’re truly about and encourage discovery of ways we can improve members’ financial lives.”

Wege is not only a fan of cooperative financial services providers but is a believer in cooperatives overall; she has built strong collaborative relationships across the Northwest’s cooperative organizations.

“I think the two most important elements that make the Credit Union Movement so special is the fact that we’re founded on meaningful cooperative principles and values that ground and guide us and that grounding sets us up to operate from a place of empathy for people where there’s a belief in what’s possible,” she said.

Wege credits her wife and family and a long list of close friends, mentors, past and present colleagues, and other industry leaders for supporting her life’s work.

“To be honored in this way,” she says, “is moving beyond measure and I am truly humbled and grateful.”

Not Just One GoWest Wegner Winner…

In addition to winning GoWest’s Summit Icon award at MAXX 2024, Ironworkers USA Credit Union’s Teri Robinson has been awarded the Herb Wegner Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement by the National Credit Union Foundation.

It can take nerves of steel to be a credit union CEO. The regulatory and financial services landscape changes rapidly and so do the needs of members.

It’s ironic, then, when you think about what Teri Robinson’s members at Ironworkers USA Federal Credit Union actually do – they construct the structural framework of buildings and bridges, crawl across beams on skyscrapers that might be 50 stories tall, or higher. They lay on their backs for long periods of time welding, with sparks falling around them. The work can be dangerous, it is certainly strenuous and often is seasonal.

It takes a special kind of credit union to serve them.

When Robinson arrived at the Portland-based Ironworkers Credit Union 15 years ago, the future looked bleak. Regulators were poised to take the reins, but Robinson has, well, an iron will. She convinced the regulators to give her a chance at changing the troubled credit union’s future.

She and her team turned things around, eventually even winning approval for a national charter. Today, Ironworkers USA can serve its members wherever their work and life’s challenges take them. On Robinson’s watch, Ironworkers USA is one of the nation’s fastest-growing credit unions; membership has tripled from 5,500 to over 15,000, and assets have skyrocketed from $7.5 million to an impressive $122 million – even during challenging economic times.

For Robinson, it’s about never losing sight of why she’s there: to serve people.

“We are truly making a difference every day in uplifting ironworkers who may not have opportunities in the traditional banking environment. We love helping them solve a puzzle and, one day, achieve financial freedom – whether that means not worrying about rent, going on a family vacation, or making a car payment,” Robinson said. “We believe in giving chances and trusting that people want to do the right thing each day. Sometimes, we just need to hold their hand and provide a clear blueprint they can understand. It doesn’t have to be overwhelming or complicated.”

Ironworkers USA has provided financial services that get the members through apprenticeships, guide them through their careers, help them buy their gear, vehicles, and homes, and get them through life – from the tops of some of those skyscrapers they work on to rock bottom. Robinson makes no judgments, only decisions, to serve members, whether they have sterling credit or are struggling. She’s approved financing that has helped members stand on their own after divorces and even funding for treatment to help them overcome addictions to gambling or drugs.

Ironworkers, like all credit union members, are people.

“They work hard, they play hard, they love hard,” said Robinson. “And you know, they just want to be loved.”

Robinson and Wege will be honored at the annual Foundation dinner on March 3, 2025, during the America’s Credit Unions national Governmental Affairs Conference.

Posted in Leadership, Oregon, Regional Member News, Top Headlines, Washington.