CUES member Jeff Disterhoft became passionate about advancing diversity, equity and inclusion after his son took a class about race at the University of Iowa and started asking his dad questions about DEI.
“A few things became clear over the course of the semester,” Disterhoft says in the show. “One, I didn't have it all figured out in terms of the systemic oppression of people of color in our country for hundreds of years. Two, I had a lot of unconscious biases that had not been properly addressed. And three, I could do more as an individual, and I felt like GreenState could do more as an organization.”
DIsterhoft is president/CEO of $11 billion GreenState Credit Union, North Liberty, Iowa, the recipient of CUES’ 2022 DEI: Catalyst for Change Award.
With its CEO and board both passionate about DEI, GreenState CU launched last year a 10-year initiative to help close Iowa's racial homeownership gap, which ranks sixth largest in the nation. The goal is to fund more than a billion dollars in mortgage loans to people of color in the communities GreenState CU serves. The CU also has committed 10% of its assets over the next decade to support home lending to people of color in the state of Iowa.
“To date, we're about $275 million in not quite the first two years and so we're in a good spot today,” Disterhoft says. “But I don't want to just rest on those laurels. We're actually encouraging other credit unions, at least right now anyway, in the state of Iowa, to join us in that effort."
GreenState CU established its emergent bilingual strategy back in 2020. The goal at that time was to address financial disparities and earn the trust of bilingual communities.
“Taking better care of the Latino community is, I think one of those rare intersections where doing right also intersects with doing good business,” Disterhoft says. “In other words, it's, it's right for those communities that may have been historically marginalized. But those are also growing communities, and so that's good for our business.”
Listen to the episode for the full story about why Disterhoft is passionate about DEI, plus more details of his credit union’s programs and his advice for other credit unions on their DEI journeys.
Links for this episode:
CUES member Jeff Disterhoft became passionate about advancing diversity, equity and inclusion after his son took a class about race at the University of Iowa and started asking his dad questions about DEI.
“A few things became clear over the course of the semester,” Disterhoft says in the show. “One, I didn't have it all figured out in terms of the systemic oppression of people of color in our country for hundreds of years. Two, I had a lot of unconscious biases that had not been properly addressed. And three, I could do more as an individual, and I felt like GreenState could do more as an organization.”
DIsterhoft is president/CEO of $11 billion GreenState Credit Union, North Liberty, Iowa, the recipient of CUES’ 2022 DEI: Catalyst for Change Award.
With its CEO and board both passionate about DEI, GreenState CU launched last year a 10-year initiative to help close Iowa's racial homeownership gap, which ranks sixth largest in the nation. The goal is to fund more than a billion dollars in mortgage loans to people of color in the communities GreenState CU serves. The CU also has committed 10% of its assets over the next decade to support home lending to people of color in the state of Iowa.
“To date, we're about $275 million in not quite the first two years and so we're in a good spot today,” Disterhoft says. “But I don't want to just rest on those laurels. We're actually encouraging other credit unions, at least right now anyway, in the state of Iowa, to join us in that effort."
GreenState CU established its emergent bilingual strategy back in 2020. The goal at that time was to address financial disparities and earn the trust of bilingual communities.
“Taking better care of the Latino community is, I think one of those rare intersections where doing right also intersects with doing good business,” Disterhoft says. “In other words, it's, it's right for those communities that may have been historically marginalized. But those are also growing communities, and so that's good for our business.”
Listen to the episode for the full story about why Disterhoft is passionate about DEI, plus more details of his credit union’s programs and his advice for other credit unions on their DEI journeys.
Links for this episode: