Cradle Of Aviation Museum Appoints Bethpage Senior Vice President Linda Armyn As Chairman

Sept. 25, 2012 - PRLog -- The Cradle of Aviation Museum board this week announced its election of Linda Armyn, Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy, Bethpage Federal Credit Union, to Chairman of the Board of the Cradle of Aviation Museum.  An educational facility that houses one of the world’s most extraordinary and diverse aerospace collections, the Cradle of Aviation Museum is also a leading regional hub for world-class STEM education through its innovative and inspirational Magnet Academy serving over 200 students annually.

In her new position, Ms. Armyn will provide vision and leadership to the Cradle of Aviation Museum and its members, and expand upon the exceptional work being done to inspire today’s youth in the areas of science, technology and math.  Through the museum’s STEM Magnet Academy, local school districts combine core curriculum with the use of the museum collection and experience of the docents to apply the knowledge learned in the classroom to a practical examples.  

With much anticipation, in the coming weeks, the Cradle of Aviation Museum will also be unveiling its newest digital exhibit, a Digital Planetarium, which will treat students with realistic, close-up views of Earth, star fields and planets, taking students on an exhilarating flight through a virtual re-creation of our universe. With access to data from NASA and the European Space Agency, and a database of more than two billion stars developed by the Museum of Natural History, the Digital Planetarium offers a virtual tour of the universe as never seen before.  We will be announcing an exciting partnership and the premiere of the planetarium in the next few weeks.

“The Cradle of Aviation Museum is a Long Island treasure that continues to inspire our youth like none other,” said Linda Armyn.  “The launch of the new Digital Planetarium, along with the museum’s recent selection as one of the lead organizations to launch the new Long Island STEM Hub offer us exciting new platforms from which to continue to help improve college and career readiness for our youth.  This is an exciting time for the museum, and I am excited to get started in my new role.”

Along with The U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, the Cradle of Aviation Museum was recently selected by the Empire State S.T.E.M. Learning Network as one of the lead organizations to launch the Long Island STEM Hub.  The Empire State STEM Learning Network initiative is part of a national movement with a consortium of states that has received support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Battelle, and the AT&T Foundation.

“The Cradle of Aviation Museum attained many achievements over the recent years under previous Chairman Todd Richman and looks forward to a future of new accomplishments under Linda Armyn’s leadership.  I congratulate our new Chairman, Linda Armyn, who unquestionably will be a huge success in her new role,” said Ron Cooper, Mayor of Lake Success, NY and Treasurer, Cradle of Aviation Board.    

Since the Magnet Academy’s inception with the Westbury School District, the museum has since gone on to add the Uniondale school district, and celebrated its first class graduation with all graduating students attending four-year colleges and 70% majoring in STEM subjects. As part of the robust educational program, the museum has added three new programs to the 2012 curriculum: “Satellite Works” exploring different uses of satellite technology; “Simple Machines” showing how small technology can make a big difference; and “Physics of Toys” using common toys to explore inertia, kinetic energy, and laws of motion.  The Cradle of Aviation also serves as a premier Long Island catering facility for events and conferences.

Armyn is highly regarded within the not-for-profit sector for her many contributions and her leadership, including heading up Community Development at Bethpage.  She is Co-Chair on the Leadership Council for the Mentoring Partnership of Long Island, Vice Chair of YMCA Long Island, and board Vice President at the Child Care Council of Suffolk.  

In 2005, Armyn was honored by the Education and Assistance Corporation (EAC) and recognized as a 40 Under 40 Executive by the Long Island Business News.  On behalf of Bethpage, she accepted the 2005 Corporation of the Year award bestowed by the Long Island Chapter of the Association of Fund Raising Professionals.   The Long Island Business News named her one of Long Island’s Top 50 Women for 2006, 2007 and 2008.   In 2009, she received the AFP-LI Lee Koppleman Community Leadership award.

Armyn is active professionally within her industry as a speaker at various annual conferences, strategy sessions and panels, including the 2007 United States Department of Treasury conference on serving the Unbanked.  She is a member of the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) Government grass roots task force and previously served on the National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU) legislative committee and as a member of the Filene Research Institute’s i3 Group, comprised of next generation credit union leaders focused on identifying and implementing new products, services or business models that will transform the credit union industry.  

In her strategic role for Bethpage, Armyn focuses on collaboration and innovation to develop and execute a strategy that continues to move Bethpage towards being the premiere community financial institution on Long Island, while delivering extraordinary value, service and convenience to its member owners.  Ms. Armyn joined Bethpage in 2001 and today the financial institution is the largest credit union in New York State with nearly $5 billion in assets.

A graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park, Ms. Armyn resides in Melville with her husband and their two sons.  

Bethpage Federal Credit Union is a not-for-profit financial cooperative, existing solely to serve its members and has experienced rapid growth in recent years to become a strong alternative to banks.  Bethpage was approved for the largest federal community charter in the U.S. in 2003 and now is Long Island’s largest credit union and leading community financial institution with over 205,000 members, 26 branches and 60 shared service center locations throughout Nassau and Suffolk Counties. As a financial cooperative, Bethpage offers better rates, lower fees and a full menu of personal and commercial financial services.

Bethpage maintains branch locations in Bay Shore, Bay Shore King Kullen, Bethpage, Central Islip, Commack King Kullen, Elmont, Farmingdale, Freeport, Glen Cove, Hempstead, Huntington, Levittown King Kullen, Lynbrook, Massapequa, Melville, Mineola, North Babylon, Patchogue, Port Jefferson, Riverhead, Seaford, Smithtown, Roosevelt, West Babylon and Westbury with over 425 surcharge-free ATMs in King Kullen, 7-Eleven, CVS Pharmacy and Costco locations throughout Long Island.  For more information, call 1-800-628-7070 or visit www.bethpagefcu.com.