Future Leaders Program Will Expand in 2021 Spotlight

Karen Byrd, LUTCF, is Immediate Past President of NAIFA-Tennessee, IFAPAC Defender, and a proud NAIFA member since 1996. Aside from her work at Independent Brokers agency based in Adams, Tennessee, Karen is passionate about the future workforce of the financial services industry. Karen established a strong relationship with Austin Peay State University and has been regularly visiting and providing students access to NAIFA programs and inviting students to become members of NAIFA. The good work of Karen Byrd is helping to raise awareness of financial services as a career opportunity for university students. Thanks to Karen, we are spreading the word about a profession that we all love. advisors do — to help clients get on to and stay on a path to financial security. The program featured a panel discussion on different career paths and featured 2019 YAT Leader of the Year, Cheryl Canzanella, LUTCF, of MassMutual; Becky Brothers of Principal Financial Group; Derek Scheetz of Lifetime Financial Group (Guardian); and Isaac Amaya of The Pinnacle Group. The Future Leaders were then treated to a discussion on tenacity by Delvin Joyce, CLU, ChFC, of Prudential and finished with a talk on growth mindset by Brian Haney, CLTC, CFS, CFBS, CIS, LACP, CAE, of the Haney Company. As a final addition to the Future Leaders program, staff from Cambridge Research, who sponsored the Future Leaders program, spoke directly to students about internship opportunities that they have and provided a deep dive on how Cambridge Research works.

Do you have connections at a university, college or junior college that would be interested in participating in Future Leaders? Or, are you an alum of a program that you want NAIFA to invite into Future Leaders? Referrals are everything! We thank Ike Trotter for introducing us to his alma mater, Ole Miss. Thanks, Ike! If you have a referral, please drop us a note at marketing@naifa.org.

NAIFA’s 2025 Strategic Plan officially incorporated the Future Leaders program, and the 2021 Business Implementation Plan features it as a priority program. Plans for the program include the launch of a blog for participating universities and students to apprise them of upcoming events and include content of interest, as well as to double the number of participating universities. A special Future Leaders segment was included in the Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Impact Week and again featured Cheryl Canzanella, Derek Scheetz and Stephen Kagawa, FSS, LUTCF, NAIFA’s 2020 Diversity Champion (to learn more about Stephen, see the feature story for Differentiate in this issue). Plans for the annual Performance+Purpose professional development conference, and the Limited & Extended Care Planning Center Impact Week scheduled for November 2-4, 2021, will also include a Future Leaders component.