Daily News

Freedom Credit Union Welcomes Gina Noblit, Charlene Smolkowicz

SPRINGFIELD — Freedom Credit Union recently welcomed Gina Noblit and Charlene Smolkowicz to its management team.

Noblit joined Freedom as director of Human Resources, managing the HR activities for the credit union, which employs a staff of about 130. Noblit has more than 31 years of HR experience in both healthcare and manufacturing. She comes to Freedom from Baystate Health, where she was a senior Human Resources consultant. She earned her master’s degree in human resource technology from American International College and her bachelor’s degree from Westfield State University.

Smolkowicz joined Freedom as commercial credit manager, member business lending. Her primary responsibility is to assure the consistent application of and adherence to commercial credit policy and current regulations, strengthen commercial underwriting standards, monitor portfolio risk, as well as develop and maintain sound commercial credit quality. Smolkowicz has 18 years of experience in the finance industry, including expertise in credit/financial analysis, business development, and relationship management. Most recently, she was associate vice president, portfolio/relationship manager with People’s United Bank for nine years, where she specialized in nonprofit, healthcare, and higher education, in addition to commercial and industrial lending. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Northeastern University and a graduate certificate in nonprofit management from Bay Path University.