Pat Hamilton of North County Credit Union went from teller to CEO.

Robin Lentz started out in collections. Marla Shepard was a teller. So was Pat Hamilton. They are among an increasing number of women working their way from the front lines to the executive suites of San Diego-based credit unions.

Although women have made strides in recent years across most industries, credit unions have been a particularly nurturing environment for female lenders. This summer, Irene Oberbauer, chief operating officer at $3.8 billion San Diego County Credit Union, will assume the chief executive’s spot, succeeding the retiring Ron Calvao.

More than one third of credit union CEOs nationwide are women, and while many of them direct smaller institutions, Oberbauer is part of a growing number of female executives running CUs that dwarf the assets of most community banks.

According to first quarter data published on creditunions.com, 14 of the nation’s 123 credit unions with assets of $1 billion or more have female CEOs. Among CUs headed by women, Oberbauer’s SDCCU is surpassed in share size only by the Golden 1 Credit Union in Los Angeles with $6.3 billion and the American Airlines Credit Union in Texas with $4.2 billion.

Females in top jobs in the rest of corporate America are increasing, but still rare. A 2006 survey in Fortune magazine found 10 female CEOs among the Fortune 500, 20 among the Fortune 1,000.

Local executives say the trend toward women in high credit union places can be explained by credit unions’ nonprofit philosophy of “people helping people,” the fact that the majority of credit union members are women and perseverance. Most local female execs who have risen to the top jobs in credit unions have decades of experience in the industry.

“Because a lot of CUs are small, let’s say under $20 million in shares, historically they’d pull somebody out of accounting to run the credit union and it went from there,” says Robin Lentz, CEO of Cabrillo Credit Union with about 20,000 members and $160 million in shares.

The reason the majority of credit union members are women, Lentz surmises, is that employment groups credit unions traditionally serve have a high percentage of female employees. “In our case, the membership is employment driven,” she explains.

Cabrillo has a community charter, meaning anyone who works in San Diego County can join, but the CU started as a lender to federal employees, and merged with a CU serving Sharp health care workers.

Marla Shepard, CEO at First Future Credit Union with more than $900 million in shares and about 63,000 members, says women have fared better in credit union leadership than in corporate America as a whole because CUs have a greater tendency to promote from the ranks.

“CUs promote from within probably more than other businesses,” she says. “And because CUs are 70 percent women, you’re promoting women like me who started out as a teller and eventually became the CEO.”

Other executives say women have inherent qualities that fit the credit union model. “I think it’s because of the core mission of the credit union, people helping people, and creating a nurturing financial environment, and females are nurturing by nature,” says Geri Dillingham, chief operating officer of $1.5 billion North Island Credit Union. “Banks operate quarterly, almost like a sporting event, where credit unions have a longer-term perspective.”

North Island recently broke ground on its new headquarters at Route 52 where it crosses the 805 (“Something more central to Temecula,” Dillingham says), scheduled to open in November of 2008.

At North Island, the senior executive team is 30 percent women, and department heads and branch managers are about 40 percent female. Dillingham says female clients seeing women in management roles can pay dividends.

“Women can have the patience to make a branch more inviting, more engaging and personal,” she adds.

Cal Coast Credit Union’s core membership is teachers, so it’s not surprising that its incoming chairman of the board Barbara Brooks is a woman; in fact, a woman has held the chairman spot before.

Cal Coast Credit Union’s Kathy Cady says the ‘community feel’ of CUs attract women both as employees and as customers.

Kathy Cady, senior vice president of member services at Cal Coast, estimates the CU’s membership at 54 percent female. Cal Coast has more than 77,000 members with about $877 million in shares.

“The credit union industry developed as a very service-oriented business and you tend to attract those types of people,” Cady says. “CUs have a community feel and females tend to gravitate to service industries so there’s more opportunity for growth and advancement.”

Another credit union with its roots in education is Mission Federal Credit Union, where two-thirds of its 137,000 members are women. The CU has about $2 billion in member shares, says Michele Brega, community relations manager.

Pat Hamilton, CEO at Rancho Bernardo’s North County Credit Union (4,900 members; $50 million in shares) has watched the evolution of the woman’s roles in CUs and society. “When I started out, men did most of the banking and made most of the decisions, and it used to be a lot of men didn’t have their wives on their accounts,” she says.

Hamilton says women are well suited to executive leadership in CUs. “Credit unions are run by volunteer boards, and their interest is what’s best for membership—it’s never been about the money.”

As the influence of women in industry continues to grow, more women will set their sights on top jobs in increasingly larger CUs.

Asked about advancing to the top job someday, Cady didn’t hesitate.

“It’s always a possibility,” she says.