Mona Shand has traveled the world, but she can’t stay away from Michigan.
Shand, a native of the Great Lakes State and a former credit union professional, is campaigning to represent Michigan’s 42nd district in the state legislature, a region northwest of Detroit that includes Brighton, Pinckney, Green Oak and other locales.
Having worked and taught in Mexico and Australia, Shand worked as a broadcast journalist at a Lansing, Mich. CBS affiliate during the Great Recession before transitioning into a communications role with the Michigan Credit Union League. The shift was an unexpected one, she said, spawned from meeting MCUL CEO Dave Adams during a story about different lending practices at banks and CUs. Moving into a communications role “wasn’t really on my radar at the time,” she said.
Shand spent two years at MCUL, where her duties included media and public relations and writing, co-producing and anchoring a weekly industry newscast. That experience has informed much of Shand’s campaign for office.
Two of the major threats to Michigan’s CUs, she explained, are predatory lending and data breaches – both moves that lawmakers in the state and the Michigan league have worked together to address. But Shand also noted that credit unions in the state can do a better job of telling their own story.
“Many of our CUs are bearing the brunt of data breaches and retailers aren’t taking accountability,” Shand said. “But credit unions need to be better at tooting their own horn.”
When asked about what policymakers can do to help mitigate these issues plaguing credit unions, Shand discussed the partisan divide and noted how officials at all levels need to get past the politics and “focus on the issues.”
Along with placing an emphasis on education issues, Shand is bullish on strengthening Michigan’s environmental regulatory agency, where she believes that the state needs to “get rid of this notion that business and environmental regulation can’t co-exist.”
“I’ve had the chance to live in some pretty fantastic places, but this state offers things that are worth fighting for,” Shand declared.
