Education is key to advancing credit union women in leadership by providing them with the opportunity and resources to make a measurable difference in their own life, the lives of their credit union members, and their communities. The PA Sister Society’s education committee is dedicated to providing meaningful and impactful content, speakers and networking that will help to enhance the lives of our PA Sister Society members of the GWLN, so that they leave each meeting with something that will help to enrich their career and personal lives.

Join us at an upcoming event:

Virtual Event

Sister Society Ted Talks Tuesday

November 18, 2025
1:00 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.

Topic: The Happy Secret to Better Work
Shawn Achor is the winner of over a dozen distinguished teaching awards at Harvard University, where he delivered lectures on positive psychology in the most popular class at Harvard. He is also the CEO of Good Think Inc., a Cambridge-based consulting firm which researches positive outliers -- people who are well above average -- to understand where human potential, success and happiness intersect. Based on his research and 12 years of experience at Harvard, he clearly and humorously describes to organizations how to increase happiness and meaning, raise success rates and profitability, and create positive transformations that ripple into more successful cultures. He is also the author of The Happiness Advantage.

Feel free to watch the video ahead of the session.

We will break out for discussion after viewing the online video together.
Shawn Achor – The Happy Secret to Better Work – Ted Talk Video

Contact pasistersociety@vfccu.org for event details and registration.

PA Sister Society Book Club

An Everyone Culture – Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization

An Everyone Culture – Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey explores how organizations can be transformed into deliberately developmental organizations (DDOs) where everyone’s growth is part of the company’s daily work. That makes it a perfect fit for credit unions, which already prioritize community, trust and human development.

This six-week book club will explore how the principles of deliberately developmental organizations can deepen our personal leadership and strengthen our credit union’s culture.

Jeanne Heath, director of cultural engagement and learning with Vizo Financial, will be our guide and session facilitator for each one-hour discussion. There is no cost to participate in this event. These sessions will be recorded for playback.

Book Club Dates

January 13, 2026
2:00 - 3:00 p.m. ET
Session One: Meet the DDOs

February 3, 2026
2:00 - 3:00 p.m. ET
Session Two: What Do We Mean by Development?

February 24, 2026
2:00 - 3:00 p.m. ET
Session Three: A Conceptual Tour of the DDO

March 17, 2026
2:00 - 3:00 p.m. ET
Session Four: In the Groove

April 7, 2026
2:00 - 3:00 p.m. ET
Session Five: Is This Any Way to Run a Business?

April 28, 2026
2:00 - 3:00 p.m. ET
Session Six: Uncovering Your Biggest Blind Spot and Creating Home

Click here for event details and registration.

Mark your calendar:

We look forward to having you join us for all of our 2026 Ted Talk Discussions. Watch your email for topic updates as we get closer!

Past educational opportunities:

October 23, 2025

Jill Nowacki, president/CEO, Humanidei

During this in-person event, Jill Nowacki, president/CEO of Humanidei, helped attendees discover ways to find balance, better understand our values and, ultimately, uncover our success story, during this workshop, Reputation Matters

May 13, 2025

Sister Society Ted Talks Tuesday

This Ted Talk Tuesday session featured Molly Graham – Forget the Corporate Ladder – Winner Take Risks. Success in your career looks different for everyone — but no matter your industry, you'll need to take risks. Company and community builder Molly Graham shares three key skills to learn before jumping off the metaphorical cliff, outlining a path off the corporate ladder and into true professional and personal growth.

Molly Graham – Forget the Corporate Ladder- Winners Take Risks – Ted Talk Video

January - April 2025

Sister Society Book Club

The book club meet monthly to discuss the book The Lightmaker’s Manifesto. In The Lightmaker’s Manifesto, Karen Walrond takes us on a journey to discover that it is possible to, “work for change without losing your joy.” Not only will we read and discuss this book together, but we'll have opportunities to participate in useful and creative activities that will help us to identify what we value, how we can live intentionally, where our joy comes from and how can we use that joy to change the world. During the months of January through April 2025, Vizo Financial's director of cultural engagement and learning, Jeanne Heath, guided each one-hour Zoom discussion, which covered a different portion of The Lightmaker’s Manifesto.

October 30, 2024

Why DEI Matters

This in person event was held at Members 1st FCU in Enola, Pa. and featured Angela Russell, chief diversity officer, at TruStage and the president of the TruStage Foundation. In these roles, she provides strategic enterprise-wide leadership to ensure that TruStage’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is reflected in the workplace, community partnerships and marketplace through its products, processes and services.

August 20, 2024

Sister Society Ted Talks Tuesday

This Ted Talk Tuesday session featured Margaret Heffernan – Forget the Pecking Order at Work. Organizations are often run according to "the superchicken model," where the value is placed on star employees who outperform others. And yet, this isn't what drives the most high-achieving teams. Business leader Margaret Heffernan observes that it is social cohesion — built every coffee break, every time one team member asks another for help — that leads over time to great results. It's a radical rethink of what drives us to do our best work, and what it means to be a leader. Because as Heffernan points out: "Companies don't have ideas. Only people do."

Margaret Heffernan – Forget the Pecking Order at Work – Ted Talk Video

May 14, 2024

Sister Society Ted Talks Tuesday

This Ted Talk Tuesday session featured Dame Stephanie Shirley - Why Do Ambitious Women Have Flat Heads? Dame Stephanie’s story has many strands which, woven together by her courage, determination and resilience, have produced a lifetime of exceptional achievements. In recognition of these, she was appointed Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in 2017, a membership limited to only 65 individuals globally, for her services to the IT industry and philanthropy.

A child refugee who at five years old came to England without her parents, Dame Stephanie went on to found an all-woman software company that pioneered remote working and redefined the expectations and opportunities for working women at that time. It was ultimately valued at almost $3 billion and made 70 of her staff millionaires. Since ‘retiring’ her work has been in philanthropy, with a particular focus on autism and IT.

Dame Stephanie Shirley – Why Do Ambitious Women Have Flat Heads? – Ted Talk Video

March 12, 2024

Sister Society Ted Talks Tuesday

This Ted Talk Tuesday session focused on Shonda Rhimes'– My Year to Saying Yes to Everything. Shonda Rhimes is responsible for some 70 hours of television per season and loves to work. "When I am hard at work, when I am deep in it, there is no other feeling," she said. She has a name for this feeling: "the hum". The hum is a drug. The hum is music. The hum is God's whisper in her ear. But what happens when it stops? Is she anything besides the hum? In this moving talk, join Rhimes on a journey through her "year of yes" and find out how she got her hum back.

Shonda Rhimes – My Year of Saying Yes to Everything – Ted Talk Video