MADISON, WI — Gayle Rust Gustafson, vice president of Human Resources & Corporate Culture for SELCO Credit Union in Eugene, Oregon, has been elected chair of the CUNA Council Forum. Gustafson was a founder and most recently served as chair of the CUNA HR Council, one of CUNA’s six professional development groups and a member organization of the Council Forum. She will take office at this year’s Forum meeting in June.

"Gayle really is one of a kind when it comes to Council leadership," says Mark Wilburn, senior vice president and chief lending officer for 66 Federal Credit Union and former chair of the CUNA Lending Council who has worked with Gustafson on past Council activities. "Our organizations sit at the cusp of new opportunities in which they will need to grow and expand to serve potential and existing members. The other chairs all agreed that Gayle is the best possible candidate to make this happen."

The Council Forum functions as the governing body for the six councils and is made up of the chair and vice chair of each of the organizations. The members are the CUNA Marketing Council, the CUNA CFO Council, the CUNA Lending Council, the CUNA Technology Council, the CUNA HR Council and the CUNA Operations Council.

The Forum first met informally in 1996. The position of Forum chair was created by the Councils two years ago and filled by Mark Wilburn. Gustafson follows Wilburn and is the first candidate elected to the position.

Gustafson has worked in credit unions for 19 years, including ten years in operations for credit unions in the San Francisco Bay Area, and nine years as Vice President of Human Resources at SELCO Credit Union. Gayle assisted in the creation of Career ExCELL, and has led workshops nationally on Executive Leadership Competencies. Ms. Gustafson earned a B.M. Degree with Distinction from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ, and an A.A. Degree from Golden Valley Lutheran College in Minneapolis, MN. She is a 1985 graduate of Western CUNA Management School.

This year’s Council Forum meets June 1-2 in San Francisco.