Michelle Dumont
Officer, Portfolio Administrator
Kennebunk Savings Bank
Exciting news for the CFTEA community! We’re thrilled to welcome long-time student Michelle Dumont to the CFTEA Regional Advisory Council. Michelle brings a wealth of experience in commercial lending to the table, and we’re confident she will be an amazing member as we continue the goal of showcasing the value of CFTEA with organizations.
Michelle has been a Kennebunk Savings Bank team member since 1989 and has held various positions in the Commercial Lending department during the last 20 years, including acting as the trainer for KSB Commercial Loan Assistants where she continues to be an active resource. We took a few moments to speak with Michelle and understand how CFTEA has contributed to her career development.
“I will be showing my age (and that’s ok), but I have been taking classes and attending seminars for around 24 years. The classes I attended started under AIB, then it was updated to CFT followed by CFTEA. They have provided me an opportunity to learn and grow while giving me the opportunity to meet other “Bankers”. I have earned 16 Certificates and 7 Diplomas. Some of the classes were accepted and transferred for college credits. I continued my education at York County Community College and earned my Associate Degree in Applied Science in Career Studies. CFTEA provides a variety of available classes. One topic that stands out to me is the different communication skills. This includes Telephone Etiquette and the different forms of Written Communication. It is important to know how to communicate properly in writing and speaking.”
CFTEA’s core values of Trusted, Flexible, Passionate, and Innovative are central to engaging with students, organizations, and the community. Michelle shared how one of these values was key to her career development.
“One of the core values that stands out and impacted me would be “Flexible”. Not only are there a variety of topics, but there are also a variety of opportunities to take a class. The classes are offered in person, online, on your own, and on Zoom. Also, there are different lengths of time to be committed depending on the topic. Having the variety and multiple options available helped me with “work-life balance”. During a majority of the time I was taking classes, I was working full time and my children were young. The flexibility CFTEA provides allowed me to take classes that I might not have been able to without these options.”
Michelle has been instrumental as a subject matter expert as she worked on updating CFTEA’s Commercial Loan Assistant career path. Recently, she worked with CFTEA on the development and release of the new Commercial Portfolio Manager certificate and diploma – a brand-new career path!
“Becoming a council member is an opportunity for me to give back to the CFTEA program. Working with other council members to continue providing programs and opportunities for career development is an amazing opportunity. I enjoy organizing and creating training programs as well as preparing reference manuals. Over the years, I have encouraged others to take classes through CFTEA and will continue to promote opportunities for personal growth.”