Elizabeth Whitehead, the NCUA's associate regional director, programs in Region I, was named by the board today to be the Director of Region V.

Whitehead, who began at the agency in 1988 as a district examiner, will be running an office with supervisory oversight of 480 federal credit unions with $57.6 billion in assets located in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming and Guam. Region V is headquartered in Tempe, Ariz.

She succeeds Jane Walters, who has served as acting regional director since last March and now returns to her position as director, Region II. The last permanent director of Region V was Melinda Love, who became director of the agency's Office of Examination and Insurance last March.

Earlier in her career at the NCUA, Whitehead was a senior supervision analyst and principal examiner. Before she joined the agency, Whitehead was CEO of Hurlbut Employees FCU in South Lee, Mass.