Meet Cornerstone's Professional of the Year and Hall of Fame award winners

Cornerstone League has announced the winners of its most coveted awards for 2023. Congratulations to Cameron Dickey, the Professional of the Year, and to Hall of Fame inductees Dwayne Ashcraft and Don Mullins.

Winners will receive their awards at the Networking and Awards Luncheon on April 13 during IMPACT 2023: Annual Meeting and Council Forum in Grapevine, Texas. In the meantime, get to know your winners!

Cameron Dickey, 2023 Professional of the Year

Cameron Dickey is president/CEO of Cy-Fair Federal Credit Union in the Houston area and has led the credit union for 10 years. He has a 20-year history of service to credit unions in a range of capacities, including a six-year tenure as president of Providence Health System FCU in Portland, Ore.

Dickey’s passion and sustained contributions are evidence of his commitment to the international credit union movement. He was recognized in 2021 with the highest award one can receive worldwide, the Distinguished Service Award, from the World Council of Credit Unions. His award came with high praise for his dedication to helping vulnerable populations, orphans, and young credit union leaders around the world.

Today, he serves on the boards of two local nonprofits: Cy-Fair Educational Foundation, which funds college scholarships for high school seniors, and Reach Unlimited, which provides support services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. He also serves on the boards of two credit union CUSOs.

He serves as chair of Cornerstone League’s International Credit Union Committee, and as a member of the Texas Governmental Affairs and Awards and Recognition committees. He’s a staunch advocate for credit unions and a frequent participant at Hike the Hill and governmental affairs conferences. He also won the Advocate of the Year award from the Oregon Credit Union League in 2004.

With all those commitments, it might surprise you to learn that Dickey ran successfully for public office in 2018 and 2022 to serve on the board of a local residential water control district. Additionally, he has accumulated more than 160 hours of community involvement in Harris County, and Cy-Fair FCU won the “Large Business of the Year” award in 2015 and 2021 from the Cy-Fair Houston Chamber of Commerce.

Vice president of member experience, Georgette Salazar, complimented our Professional of the Year’s leadership, forward-thinking, community involvement, and cultivation of a strong organizational culture. Since 2012, when he became the CEO, Cy-Fair FCU has been on a fast track of growth and development.

“He is a strategic and analytical leader who planned out how we could be trailblazers in our industry,” Salazar said. “He introduced new models that shrank the footprint of each financial center and implemented a new way to provide teller services that would maximize our resources. This helped us to open locations at a much smaller price tag while creating a design that was new, inviting, and technologically appealing.”

While he’s in the community, our Professional of the Year never hesitates to assist a member or potential member while providing his personal contact information so they can follow up with him. He is a proponent of mentoring and often credits his own professional growth to his CUNA Management School Class of 1999.

Cornerstone League shares hearty congratulations to the 2023 Professional of the Year, Cameron Dickey. He will receive his award at the Networking and Awards Luncheon on April 13 during IMPACT 2023: Annual Meeting and Council Forum in Grapevine, Texas.

2023 Hall of Fame Inductees

It’s fairly unusual to have two inductees for Cornerstone’s Hall of Fame, but this year, two is the perfect number. The Hall of Fame was created to honor veterans of the credit union movement who reflect a distinguished history of service, possess singular records of achievement within their credit union, and demonstrate an ongoing commitment of their time, energy, and servant’s heart to benefit many credit unions and people. Our two 2023 inductees embody that description to a tee. 

Dwayne Ashcraft

Dwayne Ashcraft was president and CEO of Arkansas Superior Federal Credit Union in Warren, Ark., where he had been employed since February 1973. After five decades of serving the credit union movement, Ashcraft retired in January 2022. However, he continues his relationship with the credit union as a director on its board.

Under Ashcraft’s leadership, Arkansas Superior FCU grew from $330,000 in assets with 500 members to $76 million in assets and more than 10,500 members. He was so successful, he was inducted into the Arkansas Credit Union Hall of Fame in 2013.

Ashcraft served on the Arkansas Credit Union League board of directors for 18 years and as its chairman for another 10 years. Notably, he was involved in creating the new Cornerstone League, whose inaugural board Ashcraft served on for three years. He was on the Cornerstone Foundation Committee for several years, and was active in Cornerstone’s governmental affairs committees, ARCUPAC, and CULAC.

In the community, Ashcraft served on the Bradley County Chamber of Commerce and Bradley County Industrial Development and Ministry Resource.

He was instrumental in representing Arkansas credit unions to Congress as they considered and passed H.R. 1151, the Credit Union Membership Access Act of 1998. H.R. 1151 authorized multiple-group chartering for federal credit unions and made other important changes in the Federal Credit Union Act. The act was signed into law on Aug. 7, 1998.

Ashcraft once told Cornerstone League when featured in the “Leave a Legacy” column, “I have seen a lot of change and been involved in many efforts to preserve the credit union movement and its tax exemption. Throughout these 49 years, I have made a lot of friends in the credit union movement. My success was the result of their help and encouragement.”

Don Mullins

Don Mullins began his 44-year credit union career in 1979 with the $13 billion Southwest Corporate Federal Credit Union, serving as vice president of member services, loan officer, and assistant treasurer. In 1985 he was named the president/CEO of Las Colinas Federal Credit Union.

Mullins played a monumental role in developing the strategy that gave Texas credit unions the ability to offer checking accounts in the 1980s. Because credit unions could not clear checks through the Federal Reserve, Mullins helped devise a strategy for a collective group of credit unions to purchase Town North Bank. Through this endeavor, credit unions purchased shares in the bank, granting them ownership rights and the ability to begin offering checking accounts to their members. The purchase of Town North Bank also paved the way for credit unions to offer credit and debit cards to their members and further strengthened their ability to compete with banks.

Mullins later moved to Texas Trust Credit Union, where he spent 15 years as chief operating officer. During his tenure, Mullins led the credit union as it grew from a solitary branch to five locations. He also provided leadership through Texas Trust’s first merger and launched the credit union’s first CUSO. During the liquidity crunch in the early ‘80s, he worked voluntarily with NCUA to develop policies that gave 90% of credit unions a permanent source of backup liquidity.

Mullins served in volunteer capacities for what was then the Texas Credit Union League and the Dallas Chapter of Credit Unions for seven years, where he served as a chair of every committee. In addition, he served on the Credit Union and Banking Committee of the Dallas County Community College District representing the Cornerstone League.

One of the most noteworthy contributions Mullins made to the credit union movement was his 20 years of teaching. In the 1980s, he developed an associate degree program in credit union management for the Dallas County Community College District. The course, a first of its kind, was based on the textbook he authored, “Introduction to the Credit Union Business.” He also served as professor for the course, which quickly expanded to other community colleges in Texas and was adopted by the University of Texas at El Paso as well as the Pan American University in Edinburg. Mullins’ course and instruction became a foundational part of the League’s continuing education program to teach hundreds of credit union employees about the credit union industry.

Mullins retired from Texas Trust in 2004, but he wasn’t finished with credit unions. He founded the Mullins Group to serve credit unions under $100 million in assets. Since then, he has provided small credit unions with master-level insight and expertise to help them develop and grow, which contributes to the overall success of the credit union movement.

See the full list of award winners.