Leadership lessons learned from past disasters

<p>At first glance, an earthquake and hurricane don’t appear to have anything in common with a global public health crisis. <br/><br/>But the lessons credit unions leaders learned from those natural disasters are ones they’ve put in place during the response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. <br/><br/>Eric Bruen, president/CEO of $40 million asset <a href='https://www.desertvalleys.org/'>Desert Valleys Federal Credit Union</a> in Ridgecrest, Calif., and Judy De Lucca, president/CEO of $175 million asset <a href='https://www.noffcu.org/'>New Orleans Firemen’s Federal Credit Union</a>, joined the CUNA News Podcast to talk about their experiences responding to crisis situations and how those experiences have guided them during the current pandemic. <br/><br/>When back-to-back earthquakes struck the region in July 2019, Bruen and his team jumped into action to provide short-term emergency loans to members impacted by the disaster. As news about COVID-19 began to increase, Bruen relied on the lessons he learned during the earthquake response. <br/><br/>Leading a credit union through a crisis is also a familiar situation for De Lucca, who was the CEO at the credit union when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005.</p>