On Saturday, August 17, 2024, Sandia Laboratory Federal Credit Union (SLFCU) Executive Leaders attended the University of New Mexico Lobo Club’s annual “Cherry and Silver” Scholarship Gala, where they proudly donated $1M+ for UNM’s Student Athletes and announced a new partnership between SLFCU, UNM Lobo Club and 505 Sports Venture Foundation.

On any other day, I would be thrilled by this announcement and proud of SLFCU’s commitment to supporting youth athletes.

My daughter Jaiya Devi is a highly-recruited New Mexico Track and Field Athlete, who will train over the next 4 years to represent Team USA in the LA28 Olympics.

Ironically, UNM is among the top schools that have actively worked to recruit Jaiya in the hope of keeping New Mexico’s “homegrown” talent, home.

Be Gritty. Be Accountable. Why Work at SLFCU?

But the actions of CEO Steph Sherrodd and Executive Vice President Alex de la Cruz, who was until recently my boss, are nothing to celebrate. Their public gesture reflects the “Performative Equity” actions often demonstrated by organizations who seek to appear publicly equitable but fail to establish workplace cultures that mirror the mantras they spout.

I was hired by Robert Half International to work as a temp-to-perm Technology Project Manager at SLFCU. I began work on May 1, 2024, as the only Black person and contractor on a 58+ employee team, and 1-day after reporting being segregated from my team and targeted by my supervisor, I was fired on August 2, 2024, without any warning or explanation.

When I commented (note below) on the $1M+ donation social media post by CEO Steph Sherrodd, Steph blocked my LinkedIn account, deleted my comment, and reported my LinkedIn post, which was immediately removed from the platform.

Controlling the public narrative and making every effort to silence the voice of an underrepresented Black employee who was fired after reporting racialized, workplace aggression and discrimination, does not deliver on the SLFCU commitment to:

DO THE RIGHT THING

• We build trust.
• We demonstrate integrity.
• We embrace and actively manage risk.

I relocated to Albuquerque for my SLFCU job and enrolled my daughter in the school district 1 block from the SLFCU branch where my office was located.

My SLFCU Director fired me on the day she knew I was moving into the home I’d leased for the next 12 months. She and the VP who supported my firing were fully aware of the potential impacts on my daughter’s future and current eligibility, should we become displaced, which is likely.

No one–not even the recruiting agency (Robert Half International) who hired me–questioned my firing or the claims I “underperformed” and “did not have the skill set to perform the work needed”?

Their actions of discrimination and retaliation have left us devastated.

Donating $1M+ to UNM Student Athletes while destroying my daughter’s Olympic dreams does NOTHING to fix what really plagues Sandia Laboratory Federal Credit Union’s work culture.

Inequity and the absence of accountability cost everyone.

BE BETTER, EVERY DAY

Luckie