By Alice Toomer-McAlpine
US co-operative business apex NCBA CLUSA has announced the election of its new board. Five co-op leaders were re-elected. The results were shared at the association’s annual membership meeting on Tuesday by Michelle Schry, nominations committee chair and director of retail support at National Co+op Grocers.
“We were really lucky to have a robust and talented slate of candidates this year,” she said, “and we deeply appreciate everyone who chose to step forward and run for the board.”
Cornelius Blanding: Blanding has a wealth of experience including rural, international and co-operative economic development. He is the executive director of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, a position he has held since 2015.
Blanding’s background involves business and project development, management and marketing, with over 25 years of experience serving Black farmers, landowners and limited-resource co-operatives as well as rural communities in the South of the US and across the globe.
Juan Fernandez: Juan Fernandez is the president and CEO of the Credit Union Association of New Mexico, where he uses his platform to help credit unions to engage with and empower Latino communities. Having worked in credit unions and co-ops for 20 years, Fernandez has worked across community development, membership development, leadership, government affairs and financial wellness.
Esteban Kelly: Kelly is executive director of the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives (USFWC), and has worked across issues of multi-racial solidarity and collective ownership, political education, systemic thinking and abolitionism. He co-founded AORTA (Anti-Oppression Resource & Training Alliance) worker co-op, multi-stakeholder freelancer co-op Guilded, and Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance (PACA)
Emma McCormick: McCormick is the senior director of engagement at the National Farmers Union (NFU), an organisation that advocates for family farmers and ranchers, and their communities through education, co-operation and legislation. With a background in education, McCormick uses her skills to produce educational programmes.
Karen Zimbelman: Zimbelman has worked in the co-op sector for over 30 years, including work as a consultant on co-op development, governance, education programs and employee benefits, as well as founding two regional co-op grocers’ associations.
NCBA CLUSA reveals that by leveraging the shared resources of the cooperative movement, it seeks to engage, partner with and empower people from all walks of life—particularly those left behind by a shifting economy and facing the greatest economic and societal barriers.
NCBA CLUSA has launched a new project, called the Principle 6 (P6) Initiative, which aims to identify and scale local, regional and national opportunities for cooperatives to work together across sectors, acting on the 6th Cooperative Principle, or “cooperation among cooperatives.”
-NewsCoop