Special Guest: Opal Ellyse Tomashevska
Pronouns: she/her
Opal joined CUNA Mutual Financial Group in 2014 and is the Director, Multicultural Business Strategy . She brings more than 18 years of professional experience in training, optimization, organizational development and business leadership in roles at SITEL, Dean Health, and American Family Insurance. Her current role as Director of Multicultural Business Strategy is dedicated to advancing the efforts of the Multicultural Center of Expertise, which includes gaining a deeper understanding of underserved consumers and communities.
Opal is also a published poet and spoken word artist. Her themes touch on all subjects from her own life and from the lives she has been blessed to observe. Her most touched on topic is social injustice of any form. The realities of American racial discrimination and the detriment of poverty world-wide are often explored and explained in ways that have double and triple meanings in her poems. In 2019 she released a full-length studio spoken word album titled, “My Name is Opal” the album is available on iTunes, Spotify, Tidal and everywhere music is streamed.
Opal received her bachelor’s in psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside and her Master of Science in Organizational Development from Edgewood College.
Opal currently holds a board position as the Director of Communications for the African American Credit Union Coalition’s Midwest chapter, and in 2020 she was named as one of Wisconsin’s 51 most influential Black Leaders by Madison365 Media.