Mary Yasui-Yamabe recently received the 2023 J. Alvin George Outstanding Volunteer Award.
The award recognizes the significant contributions by people who serve credit unions in volunteer capacities.
Yasui-Yamabe is the current chair of Kinecta’s Board Nominating Committee. She is immediate past board chair and has served as chair on many other board committees. She has been a credit union volunteer since 1994.
She is a strong voice of the credit union industry, and throughout her life Yasui-Yamabe has advocated for her colleagues, friends, family and acquaintances to join the credit union. She participates as a member of Kinecta, attends employee events and engages within the community to support being a valued citizen and furthering the credit union credo of people helping people.
Yasui-Yamabe is the founding president of the Hughes Asian Pacific Professional Association and has served as the foundation chair of the Diversity Council reporting to the CEO of Hughes Aircraft Company. In 2001, she received the LEAP (Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics) award for her outstanding leadership.
Legislative and political advocacy are the root of her efforts as a board member to ensure credit unions maintain their ability to serve people of modest means. As Kinecta’s reach has grown, Yasui-Yamabe has met with state and federal legislators to share how potential laws impact credit union members.
An important part of her life is raising funds and volunteering for organizations that support the community, including:
• Japanese American National Museum
• Venice Japanese Community Center
• CMN Hospitals
• Asian Americans Advancing Justice
• City of Gardena Senior Citizens Bureau
• Go For Broke National Education Center
• Grateful Crane Ensemble
• Little Tokyo Service Center Community Development Corporation
• Mychal’s Learning Place
• Orange Coast Optimist Club of Garden Grove
• Polish Association of Credit Unions
• World Council of Credit Unions Global Women’s Leadership Network
Yasui-Yamabe is honored to receive this award and hopes to inspire others to stand up and help others. Headquartered in Ontario, the California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues exist to help credit unions change people’s lives by supporting their operations, guidance, strategy and philosophy. The trade association helps local credit unions in California serve nearly 13.4 million members and those in Nevada serve more than 390,000 members.