News

Direct Federal Credit Union Employee Maria Mendez Receives Paul Revere Award 09/13/2018

Direct Federal Credit Union is proud to announce that Direct Federal employee, Maria Mendez, has received the 2018 National Federal Credit Union Association (NAFCU) Paul Revere Award. The award recognizes Mendez as the credit union grassroots activist of the year.

The award was presented to Mendez in Washington D.C. on September 11th at the 2018 NAFCU Congressional Caucus.

“It is an honor to be recognized with NAFCU’s Paul Revere Award,” said Mendez.  “I am proud of the work credit unions do to better the financial lives of their members and local communities, and I, along with the rest of the Direct Federal Team, look forward to continuing our advocacy on behalf of the credit union industry.  Grassroots advocacy is a powerful tool of ambassadorship for the credit union difference.”

Mendez is the Legislative and Regulatory Affairs Liaison at Direct Federal. In this role she focuses on congressional advocacy, political correspondence and various grassroot efforts at the local and national level. She serves as the liaison between credit union and federal, state, and local government; and has developed and maintained strategic relationships with policy makers to help shape public policy initiatives. 

Mendez is a member of the NAFCU Political Action Committee and the Cooperative Credit Union Association (CCUA) Advocacy Committee. Through her committee designations, Mendez works to build awareness of important political influences in the Credit Union Movement.  She has also assisted Direct Federal Board of Directors in corresponding with congress regarding key initiatives.  During the past summer, Mendez launched a companywide “#DirectAdvocacy” program to educate and engage Direct Federal employees in the Credit Union Movement. 

In her spare time, she has used public records and voting statistics to support midterm candidates that demonstrate support for the credit union industry. Maria is NAFCU certified compliance officer, NCCO.

“Maria is a very talented person and she has great deal of passion for her work.  Her full skills have been an asset to Direct Federal and the credit union industry at large. She is a very capable leader for our industry,” said Joe Walsh, President and CEO of Direct Federal Credit Union.