10 minutes
Julia Cronin-Gilmore, Ph.D., Serves as a Distinguished Director on Behalf of Cobalt Credit Union
Julia Cronin-Gilmore, Ph.D., can describe her lifelong commitment to volunteerism in five simple words: “I enjoy helping other people.” Her passion for service is exemplified by the work she has done on behalf of Cobalt Credit Union, headquartered in Papillion, Nebraska, near Omaha.
During her 15 years on the board of directors, including five years as board chair, Cronin-Gilmore has played a crucial role in guiding the credit union’s growth from $400 million to over $1.2 billion in assets. Cobalt CU has flourished under her collaborative and inclusive leadership style, making her a worthy recipient of the CUES 2024 CUES Distinguished Director Award.
President/CEO Robin Larsen affirmed that Cronin-Gilmore is highly deserving of this award, characterizing her as a strong committed board member for Cobalt Credit Union and its 123,000 members. “Julia brings with her a deep understanding of the relationship between Cobalt employees and members,” Larsen said. “We appreciate, celebrate, and recognize her exemplary leadership, governance excellence, innovation, and unwavering dedication that significantly advances the credit union industry.”
As a marketing expert and accomplished educator, Cronin-Gilmore brings considerable business acumen and leadership skills to her position on the Cobalt CU board. In an academic career that spans two decades, she is currently a doctoral professor at Bellevue University in Bellevue, Nebraska, where she leads the doctorate of business administration program that she was instrumental in launching.
Cronin-Gilmore has a Ph.D. in business with a specialization in marketing, a master’s degree in management, and a bachelor’s degree in marketing. Her education, coupled with practical experience in marketing and academia, has equipped her with the expertise to navigate complex challenges and identify strategic opportunities for the credit union.
“I would say the biggest strength I bring to the board is I’m a strategic thinker,” she said. “I think about what is happening now, and what is likely to happen in the future.”
The ability to be forward-thinking is becoming increasingly critical in these rapidly changing times. Cronin-Gilmore observed that credit unions today are facing a growing number of challenges, including escalating regulatory fees, ever-evolving IT needs, and mounting cybersecurity threats. “As an industry, we need to determine how we are going to adapt to mitigating risk and also taking advantage of AI and other emerging technologies,” she said.
Cobalt CU has proven itself up to the challenges, leveraging the latest technology to meet the ever-evolving needs of its members. In 2019, Cobalt was the first credit union in the area to introduce new video banking technology. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the next year, the technology proved essential for helping credit union members conduct their financial activities.
“We really excelled during that time,” Cronin-Gilmore reported. “With the launch of our video banking technology, we made it easy for our members to complete their transactions without the need to go into a branch.”
A Lifetime of Volunteerism
Cronin-Gilmore’s commitment to volunteerism dates to her childhood. As the second youngest of nine children, she grew up in a family in which the “people helping people” philosophy of the credit union movement aligned well with this commitment.
“I first heard about credit unions when I was a young girl,” she said. “I saved up money in the traditional way, by babysitting and doing chores, and then my parents, Bernard and Evelyn Cronin, said to me one day, ‘It’s time to start a savings account.’”
Young Julia gathered her modest savings and climbed into the car with her parents. “There was this fancy new bank on the corner, but we drove right by it,” she recalled. Instead, they drove a couple more blocks to a smaller, less ostentatious building. “I asked my dad, ‘Why didn’t we stop at the new bank back there?’ And he said to me, ‘Julia, this is a credit union.’”
Her father explained that a credit union was a community organization where people got together and pooled their money to help others out. “That really meant something to me,” she said. “What was even more significant was how kind everyone at the credit union treated me, even though the amount of money I was depositing was small. My parents taught me to believe in credit unions, and I have been a member ever since.”
In her childhood, Julia also learned about the importance of volunteerism from her parents. “I have volunteered in my community since I was 10,” she said. “My parents were big believers in giving back to the community. They served on boards and were also coaches in our community.”
One of Cronin-Gilmore’s earliest experiences with volunteerism was participating in a focus group with her mother and her sister Elizabeth. The three of them would sample food and test other products, but instead of keeping the money they earned, they donated it to people in need at their church. “That was how I was introduced to helping others, and I’ve been volunteering in some capacity or another ever since,” she recalled. “Throughout the years, I’ve made it a point to be like my parents and give back to my community.”
Family continues to be an important part of Cronin-Gilmore’s life. She and her husband, Alan Gilmore, have been married 38 years and have three children and a daughter-in-law. Their two sons are family medicine doctors, their daughter-in-law is an OB-GYN surgeon, while their daughter has a degree in environmental biology. With Alan happily retired after nearly four decades of supporting his family, Julia hopes to find more time for leisure activities as well. When she’s not working, she enjoys spending time with family, playing tennis, and showing her creative flair with interior design and landscape architecture.
Based in Missouri, Diane Franklin is a longtime contributor to CU Management magazine.
A Successful Career
In her professional life, Cronin-Gilmore has combined her interests in marketing and academia to achieve prominence in her career. She originally expected to build a lifelong career in the marketing profession and progress to a senior marketing position. However, a request from a friend to be a guest speaker in a classroom environment changed her career trajectory.
“I spoke to the class and felt like I came alive talking to and interacting with the students,” she said. “So, my friend asked me again, this time if I would like to teach a class. At first, I thought I would do it as an extracurricular activity once a week, but I loved it so much that I decided to make teaching my full-time profession.”
Transitioning to a career in academia, Cronin-Gilmore initially joined the faculty at College of Saint Mary in Omaha while simultaneously serving as an adjunct professor at Bellevue University. A few years later, she joined the faculty of Bellevue University full-time as an assistant professor of business and director of marketing degrees. Six years ago, she led a team to develop and launch the doctorate of business administration program. In her current role as a doctoral professor in charge of the program, she teaches courses, guides student research, and mentors doctoral faculty.
It was during the early years of her academic career that Cronin-Gilmore became a volunteer at Cobalt CU. At the time, the institution was known as SAC Federal Credit Union. “I started off by serving on a committee before being elected to the board,” she said. “Over time, my commitment to the credit union has grown. I care for this credit union, just as I care for my students at Bellevue University and for my own family.”
During her service on the board, Cronin-Gilmore has chaired several committees, including the Volunteer Governance Committee, the CEO Compensation Committee, and the CEO Succession Planning Committee. She completed terms as treasurer, second vice chair, and first vice chair before becoming board chair in January 2020. Her service on the board coincided with an important milestone—the renaming of the organization to Cobalt Credit Union in 2018. The rebranding was undertaken to project a more inclusive image in keeping with the credit union’s charter of serving seven counties in eastern Nebraska and nine counties in western Iowa.
A Resource to the Industry
Beyond her volunteer work with Cobalt CU, Cronin-Gilmore has contributed to the wider credit union community. She has volunteered as a speaker at credit union conferences, presenting on strategy and change management topics. In addition, she has consulted with credit union leaders on such topics as how to develop a strong volunteer base and CEO compensation.
Beyond her credit union volunteerism, much of her extracurricular work centers around academia. In 2010, she launched the Journal for Excellence in Business and Education. She also is on the advisory council for the prestigious Harvard Business Review and on the editorial board for the Journal of Brand Strategy, based in London.
Consistent with her academic background, Cronin-Gilmore has a strong interest in furthering Cobalt CU’s efforts on behalf of financial education in the community. One of those efforts included opening a student branch at Plattsmouth High School. It’s the first such branch at a Nebraska high school, coinciding with the enactment of the state’s new Financial Literacy Act, which requires a semester of personal finance for students to graduate.
Cobalt CU also provides financial education to the broader population, hosting in-person events and posting financial advice on its social media platforms. “For instance, we share cybersecurity tips online through LinkedIn,” Cronin-Gilmore said. “We have a video describing the most important things our members can do to safeguard their assets. We post about a variety of topics related to financial education.”
Financial education is just one of many ways that Cobalt CU gives back to the community. The credit union also makes an impact through corporate sponsorships, employee volunteerism, and altruistic programs such as its Holiday Helping Hand campaign in support of local organizations that provide food, shelter, and other necessities to those in need. In addition, Cobalt CU supports the community through the SAC Foundation, whose mission is to be a steward of economic and social sustainability in the communities it serves.
Integral to its community outreach efforts, Cobalt CU ensures that those who need help the most are targeted for its products and services. As evidenced by its Junto Avanzamos (Together We Advance) and low-income designations, the credit union has established itself as a financial resource for the unbanked and underserved in the community.
The Employee/Member Connection
As Larsen mentioned, one of Cronin-Gilmore’s strengths is her ability to see how caring for employees ultimately translates to better service for members. “As a board, we care about our employees and members and want what’s best for them,” Cronin-Gilmore affirmed. “It’s important that we take care our employees because they, in turn, are going to take care of our members.”
Cobalt CU takes care of its employees in a number of ways, starting with excellent pay and benefits as well as offering abundant educational opportunities to support their professional development. The credit union also has implemented initiatives to show employees much they are valued.
“We do this all year round, but we make a special effort during the holidays with our ‘12 Days of Christmas,’” Cronin-Gilmore said. During this time, the credit union shows appreciation for employees with daily treats such as an on-site coffee truck, a holiday breakfast, and Cobalt-branded merchandise. The gestures may seem small, but collectively, they have a large impact on employee satisfaction and engagement.
Cronin-Gilmore noted that Cobalt CU employees do an incredible job serving members, going above and beyond the requirements of their daily jobs to find financial solutions that meet their unique needs. “As a recent example, there was an employee who approached our CEO after doing extensive research to report that we have individuals in our community who cannot get loans because they don’t have a Social Security number,” she reported.
Based on this research, Cobalt CU launched an ITIN lending program to support people such as immigrants, international students and those on dependent visas who might be excluded from traditional banking channels. “It’s helping them get loans to buy a home or car, and it’s also helping attract more members to our credit union,” Cronin-Gilmore observed.
As someone who has spent her lifetime helping others, Cronin-Gilmore is pleased to have aligned herself with Cobalt Credit Union in a mutual pursuit of making a positive impact on people’s lives. “It starts out of a desire to help our members, but it grows exponentially to helping people in the broader community,” she said. “Being part of such a culture is truly inspiring.”
