Wauna has many talented and amazing people who work for us, including Danea Passmore who recently was promoted to the Senior Vice President of Strategic Implementations. The Wonderful World of Wauna caught up with Danea to talk about her time here, and find out more about what she does, and what motivates her.
How long have you been at Wauna? I have been employed at Wauna for 11 ½ wonderful years!
What is your new position at WCU? My current position is SVP, Strategic 
Implementations. My vision is to lead and build a strategic team that improves our products & services; implements innovative technology, and ensures that members hear about all the ways we can help them achieve their financial opportunities.
What do you like most about your new job? I am looking forward to rolling up my sleeves and figuring out what we can do to help our borrowers in Clatsop, Columbia, Washington and Pacific Counties. While banks worry about products that make money, we get to think about ways to help people. The credit union believes in Integrity Coaching and The Member Advantage (TMA), which help us communicate effectively with members, and really listen to them. For the past two years, I was certified in Integrity Coaching and TMA and provided training to all staff. Through the strategic implementation process, I hope to lead with integrity, collaboration, cooperation, and build team synergy.
What do you think makes WCU special? Wauna Credit Union is special because of our people. We are people that have vision, passion, and purpose. We are proud of the fact that we make a difference every day when we show up with purpose. Another thing that is so special about Wauna is that we truly care about
our employees, community and our members. Each day, we seek to provide opportunities to take members from where they are to where they want to be. We are people helping people!
What is your favorite memory or testimonial of working with a member?
One of my favorite examples of this was during my time as the Operations Manager in the Clatskanie branch. We had a member that was overseas having trouble purchasing train tickets. His train was getting ready to leave without him…….We were literally running up and down the stairs trying to sort out the issue with Visa, keeping the member on the phone until finally the charge was approved. He made the train by minutes. We’ll never quit on a member and will do everything we can to help because we care.
Since I’ve done so much with The Member Advantage, I get to work with our internal members (i.e. employees) too! I recently had somebody that put me to
tears unexpectedly during a TMA homework call. Validate Yourself, Your Credit Union, and Your Products and Services a key section of the process. This person gave a list of positive traits about her teammates on the call. She had only met these people once and so the words she chose were even more special: kind-hearted, true problem-solver, caring, takes charge, responsible for well-being,
charismatic, well organized, researcher, serve our members, understands the needs, validating spirit, understands why we do what we do, making members feel secure, dedication, great insight, building trust, problems are followed up on and fixed, patient, reassuring, listens, and loves the Wauna family really hit me. Putting me to tears is difficult, but sometimes every once in a while, someone touches your heart and you react.