The Georgia Bankers Association awarded its Group Seven Outstanding PEP Banker of the Year Award to Kristy Lyda, a financial services representative at Northwest Georgia Bank’s Hamilton Place branch.

She earned the award, her second consecutive, for her volunteer efforts during the 2008-09 school year through participation in the Personal Economics Program, sponsored by Leadership GBA, an education arm of the GBA, and while serving as coordinator of the community bank’s volunteer class instructors for Junior Achievement of Chattanooga, a title she still holds.

Ms. Lyda taught two financial education classes for JA, one in Hamilton County and another in the Catoosa County school system in 08-09 and serves as an instructor this school year as well.

“We commend Kristy for her hard work teaching financial education in the community while benefiting two great organizations: the Georgia Bankers Association and Junior Achievement of Chattanooga,” said Tom Mastin, senior vice president of retail services at Northwest and a member of Leadership GBA’s Executive Committee.

“GBA’s PEP Program is another means to improve public knowledge about the banking industry. From teaching in the classroom through JA to speaking to a civic organization or church, Kristy and many other Northwest employees are helping educate consumers on financial education and careers in banking.”

Ms. Lyda has worked since August as an FSR at the Hamilton Place branch. She joined Northwest Georgia Bank in March 2006 as a teller at the Fort Oglethorpe branch. In 2007, she moved to the Battlefield Financial Centre and earned a promotion to FSR.

A 2002 graduate of Ringgold High School, she completed an associate’s degree in business management-finance from Northwestern Technical College in the spring. She is inches away from a Bank Operations diploma from the American Institute of Banking. She has already earned an AIB diploma in General Banking and a Supervision certificate.

Other volunteer activities while employed at Northwest include mentoring for the Catoosa County school system, raising money in the Walk 4 Wishes for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of East Chattanooga, serving as a substitute teacher at Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School for Communities In Schools of Catoosa County, delivering appreciation gifts to Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce members during Operation Thank You, serving as school liaison for the BUCS recognition program at Boynton Elementary School, and leading bank tours for community groups like Cub Scouts of America.

She recently served on the planning committee for JA’s Strike for Education.

Via volunteerism and/or fundraising, Ms. Lyda also supports T.C. Thompson Children’s Hospital, Habitat for Humanity, Northwest Georgia Bank Foundation, and the Catoosa County Chamber of Commerce.

She lives in Rossville with her husband, Chris.