North Bay Woman

54 NORTH BAY WOMAN | F A L L 2 0 1 6 By Judith M. Wilson R obin McKenzie makes working hard look easy, and that's because she's passionate about her work and grate- ful for the opportunities presented. As senior vice president of Marketing and Communications for Redwood Credit Union, she's a financial services marketer, but with a special point of view. "We're here to serve people and help them succeed," she says. Discovering credit unions was a revelation for McKenzie, 54. She grew up on 18 acres in Newcastle, in the Sierra Nevada foothills, and from there, struck out to see the world. She went backpacking through Europe after earning a political science/pre-law degree from California State University, Chico, and studying mass communications at the University of California, Davis. When she returned from Europe, she landed a job working for the Federal Communica- tions Commission in the AM radio branch in Washington, D.C. "It was a terrific experience; I learned a lot," she says. She considered law school next, but decided against it be- cause communications law requires substantial contract work. "I realized it wasn't for me," she says, and so she came back to California to work on a political campaign in San Francisco. In the lull that follows an election year, she worked for a co-op advertising company in Sacramento, and that's where she met her husband. After getting married, they moved to Southern California, where she worked in mergers and acquisitions at first, but then found a job at Orange County Teachers' Federal Credit Union that changed her life. "I fell in love with credit unions and how they help people achieve their goals," she says. She missed Northern California, however, and when she had an opportunity to work for Santa Rosa-based Redwood Credit Union, she jumped at it. That was 1993. "We grew from $160 million in assets when I started, and now we're over $3 billion and serve over 265,000 people," she says. She enjoys the fast pace and the chance to grow personally, but she finds great satisfac- tion in making a difference in other people's lives as well. She points out that RCU offers all the financial services and products banks do, but as a not-for-profit, it returns the earnings it makes on loans to members by giving them better rates, lower fees and expanded services. She also reaches out to people who need a hand by serv- ing on the boards of several non-profit organizations and was involved in the Lake County Relief Fund's efforts to assist victims of the Valley Fire in 2015. The organization raised $2.5 mil- lion from 12,000 donors in 12 weeks, and it raised more than $235,000 to help victims of this year's Clayton Fire. "Seeing so many people generously donate to our neighbors in need reinforced that people are good," she says. Life Skills 101 McKenzie observes that financial literacy is a life skill that's es- sential, but is not often taught in schools. Everyone should have a budget, but people rarely learn money management, so she advises them to acquire the basic building blocks. She suggests that they read, attend seminars and take advantage of the free financial education available online by going to RCU's Facebook Life Skills 101 Advice on living the good life and helping others Left to right: Redwood Credit Union's annual support of United Way's Day of Caring,teams of RCU employees volunteer across the North Bay in support of local nonprofits; Priscilla Jaworski, RCU's senior marketing specialist and Robin McKenzie volunteer with a team of RCU employees at the Roseland area Bayer Farm, a neighborhood garden that supports the under served in Santa Rosa; McKenzie at the Redwood Empire Food Bank where Robin and a team of RCU volunteers were packing food during last year's holidays, pictured with RCU's associate vice president of community, Meg Cadiz. The food bank supports families and individuals in need across the North Bay. – Photos provided by Redwood Credit Union Robin McKenzie

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