Financial education at any age, nationality or religious denomination is Ingrid Adade’s specialty, whether she’s making an appearance to kindergartners as “Grandma Moneybags,” a character she created, or making presentations at senior centers. “Misunderstanding is...

There’s a danger in giving Anne-Marie Bisson a little project to take care of: You may find it’s all of a sudden become a big, important one.

For Robin Burns, seeing that the credit union employees she has trained have the confidence to excel at their jobs is the most satisfying part of her job.

After she graduated from high school in 1979, Catherine Goodall worked for a short time at Beneficial Finance before landing a job as a receptionist at Workers’ Credit Union. She wasn’t sure what the future held, but never expected she would still be with the credit union, albeit in a much different position, some 35 years later.

A 20-year veteran at Pioneer Valley Credit Union, Debra Hayward has helped countless credit union members get a grip on their financial situations. She began her financial career in 1971 as a bank teller, eventually rising to manager. She left banking for a desk job...

There’s something to be said for sticking around, learning the ropes, and slowly getting better each day – and David L’Ecuyer’s career at Central One Federal Credit Union said it. After starting at the credit union as a loan officer striaght out of college, he rose through the ranks to becomes CEO in 1995, and has overseen the institution’s growth from a closed shop open only to electrical and power plant workers to a community credit union with several branches and hundreds of millions in assets under management.

After Michael Maestri graduated from high school, he started taking accounting classes at Bentley University. But to cover his tuition, he needed to work part-time, so he applied for a teller’s job at Cambridge Saving Bank. Little did he know at the time that the decision would portend his future.

Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union took a chance on Mariann O’Brien when they hired her eight years ago, O’Brien likes to say, but it could just as easily work the other way around.

More than 20 years ago, when she was a teenager, Saritin Rizzuto knew she was destined to help people. In her first job as peer leader for the Department of Public Health, she worked with at-risk youth in the community, educating them about violence prevention, substance abuse and teen pregnancy. That opportunity lit a fire for “doing for others.” Her subsequent activities, both professionally and personally, reflect her commitment to improving the lives of others.

Jon Reske might be marketing chief for UMassFive College Federal Credit Union, but his work touches on nearly every aspect of the financial institution’s mission.

Like many Credit Union Heroes, Herb White did not originally set out for a career in a credit union, but his roots as a minister in the Salvation Army are not so far afield from the credit union philosophy after all.

A college education can impart a solid academic foundation and help direct a person’s career track, but flesh-and-blood mentors have the ability to exert lifelong influence, and sometimes redirect the course. Just ask Ray Wrobel, vice president at Align Credit Union.

Charlene Bauer, senior vice president of strategic initiatives for Metro Credit Union in Chelsea, has more than 25 years of banking experience under her belt. But it was 12 years ago that she first heard the siren call of credit unions.