Today we’re rolling out a new feature in which we highlight a different branch or department each week. To start things off: our Martin Luther King Drive branch. Many thanks to Branch Manager Francisca Rodriguez for answering our questions.

Branch Personnel
Francisca Rodriguez, Branch Manager
Libni Barajas, Teller
Tawanda Kelly, Universal Banker
Kenye’tta Maclin, Teller Supervisor
Stefanie Toledo, Personal Banker
DeSean Wakefield, Teller

What is your branch’s neighborhood like? What’s it known for?

The Martin Luther King Drive branch is in the middle of two neighborhoods: Bronzeville and Brewers’ Hill. Bronzeville is a largely African-American neighborhood with a lot of rebuilding and new businesses. Brewers’ Hill is named for the many brewery employees who used to live here. There are many shops along King Drive, and it is specifically known for its social services buildings, like the YWCA and the Milwaukee Health Services building, where people are able to receive help finding employment, free medical services, and other forms of assistance. There are also many specialty stores, such as Dream Bikes, which is a nonprofit bike shop, and Northern Chocolate, which is a fine chocolate shop. Many of the business owners on King Drive do bank with North Shore and have been longtime customers. It is like a family of businesses.

What annual or regular events are big deal at King Drive? Any big ones coming up?

This year, we will be participating in the Garfield Avenue Blues, Jazz, Gospel & Arts Festival and the Juneteenth Festival. These are big events in the area in the summer. In the past, we have sponsored Center Street Daze, another local block festival.

What are some important moments or people in the branch’s history?

An important person in our branch’s history would definitely be Erica Johnson, who is now the checking services manager for North Shore Bank and was a former branch manager of King Drive. Erica helped establish a great foundation for the King Drive branch!

Does your branch have any favorite or special customers?

The owner of the local chocolate company is always a riot to speak with. We also have an owner of a secured storage company who brings the staff specialty popcorn and cookies. And we have a customer who runs a place of worship, who makes the best corned beef sandwiches. We are a bit spoiled by our regulars.

What services or products seem to be most important to your customers?

What our customers seem to like most about North Shore Bank is that it is a community bank and that its employees genuinely care about their customers. Customer service is huge to our customers. They expect us to get to know them as people, not just accounts.

We are a source of first-generation financial education for many of our customers, so checking and savings accounts are big for our branch. Also, both regular and secured credit cards help our customers a lot in building their credit, so that they can reach their financial goals.

We love showing customers how they can use their bank and their accounts, rather than using sources such as check cashing or payday loan services. We try to help in any way we can.

Any personal celebrations or milestones among the people at King Drive recently?

Our Universal Banker, Tawanda Kelly, recently had her one-year anniversary with North Shore Bank! She is such a strong part of the King Drive team.

What’s a great work story from your branch?

I think the sweetest thing that has happened for our team recently was finding out that one of our team members, Teller Libni Barajas, was expecting a baby girl. Congrats, Libni!

Our best workweek recently was a few weeks ago, when we received a full compliance on our audit. The team work so hard to achieve this.

Any exciting or noteworthy developments on the horizon for the King Drive branch?

We have just built relationships with two large housing associations where we will be hosting financial education courses. It is all about helping and educating our customers and our community, so that is always exciting! We want to be a force of positive change and truly make a difference.

We also will be having a business mixer at the end of April, which should be nice. It will be a chocolate and wine tasting event for current and prospective business customers in the area.