Synergent’s mission is to “help credit unions succeed and improve the financial lives of their members.” In our monthly Employee Spotlight series, we feature one of our dedicated staff members to help you get to know the people who are working as an extension of your credit union team.
Ash Mohney, a Senior Programmer/Analyst on Synergent’s Development team, has helped produce solutions that improve day-to-day operations and support credit union employees for the past seven years. Along the way, she has grown from a new programmer learning the fundamentals of software development into a trusted problem-solver who enjoys tackling complex technical challenges. Whether developing new user interfaces, supporting credit union conversions, or working on complex behind-the-scenes projects, Mohney approaches every challenge with curiosity and a determination to find the right solution.
Each day begins by checking email and Microsoft Teams before digging into one of several active projects. Right now, much of that work is focused on an archive statement project for a credit union preparing for an online banking conversion. The goal is to ensure members have online access to two years of statement history as soon as the new system goes live.
While members may only see the finished product, a significant amount of work takes place behind the scenes to make that experience seamless.
“Let’s say the converting credit union has 1,000 members. That’s 24 months of statements for those 1,000 members—totaling at least 24,000 files—plus associated metadata,” Mohney explained. “I am currently organizing and processing statements with new indexing metadata that is added during processing so the online banking provider can retrieve them through Synergy, our archival system. These types of projects are always a puzzle, and sometimes a real head-scratcher, to complete.”
Projects like these reflect the type of work Mohney enjoys most. They require careful planning, attention to detail, and the persistence to solve problems that are rarely straightforward. Before taking on large-scale initiatives and complex development projects, Mohney spent her early days building the skills that continue to shape her work today.
“When I started here, I was fresh from a coding program through the University of New Hampshire,” Mohney recalled. “My days were filled with learning PowerOn and Synergent coding standards. There were a lot of one-off program fixes and pair programming. Now, I am involved with more off-core project work like user interfaces for tellers, conversions, and putting out metaphorical credit union fires with code.”
The path to software development was anything but traditional. Before joining Synergent, Mohney built a career across customer service and information-focused roles. Those experiences continue to influence how she approaches problem-solving and collaboration today.
“My background is in customer service and information integrity,” Mohney shared. “I’ve worked as a bookseller, interlibrary loan clerk, admissions officer, brewery tour guide, and various other retail and service jobs. I think my background makes me a good fit for Synergent. We are a team of teams that strives for excellence through service: to our credit unions and their members, to our vendors, and, very importantly, to each other.”
That service mindset naturally complements Mohney’s curiosity and her enjoyment of understanding how all the pieces fit together. She values being part of a team where colleagues share their knowledge, support one another, and work together to achieve the best outcome.
“I like solving puzzles,” Mohney added. “I like working on a team whose members have each other’s backs.”
Both ideas come together in the work Mohney does every day. Many development projects begin as complex technical problems with countless moving parts, requiring patience, creativity, and collaboration across departments. Developing the right solution often means working with business analysts, operators, automation engineers, and other specialists to ensure everything works as expected.
“Completing projects is always invigorating,” Mohney said. “Also, it’s fun knowing that something I built is going to help credit union employees and make their day-to-day work more efficient and fundamentally easier.”
While many of the applications and utilities Mohney develops operate behind the scenes, their impact reaches credit union employees and members every day. Improving efficiency, simplifying workflows, and ensuring reliable processing allows credit unions to spend less time navigating technology and more time serving their members. Delivering those kinds of solutions, however, is rarely the work of one person. Development projects often bring together colleagues from across the organization, each contributing their expertise to move a project from concept to completion.
“I’ve gained a true team,” Mohney reflected. “There are solid folks who work here and believe in the credit union movement and its importance to the community as a whole.”
That sense of teamwork and purpose extends well beyond day-to-day collaboration. When unexpected issues arise, people from across the organization come together quickly, each contributing their expertise to help credit unions keep serving their members. One experience from Mohney’s first few months at Synergent has remained especially memorable because it demonstrated just how important that collaborative approach can be.
“A credit union had just converted, but there was an issue with the payroll for city employees not going through,” Mohney recalled. “I don’t remember all the details, but the utility I wrote and later tested with a business analyst ensured the affected city employees were paid on time and with no interruption. I have since worked on a ton of other, bigger projects that affect member and teller day-to-day operations, but that one night—staying late and getting those folks paid—sticks in my memory as the most important.”
The experience left a lasting impression, but it wasn’t the last time Mohney found herself helping resolve a time-sensitive issue. More recently, another processing challenge required an even broader response, bringing together colleagues from multiple departments to restore processing as quickly as possible.
“I had to write up a program to update some EFT records, correcting them so member payrolls would go through along with other ACH transactions,” Mohney explained. “This was a bigger issue, though. It not only needed my utility, but also business analysts, change administrators, automation engineers and operators, and even members of the upper brass all on the call while I coded in the background to solve the issue.”
Looking back over the years, Mohney doesn’t point to a single title or promotion as the highlight of her career. Instead, the most meaningful moments come from making a difference for both teammates and credit unions.
“Saving people time, fixing major issues, and helping the team are my wins,” Mohney said.
Away from work, Mohney enjoys pursuing a variety of interests, whether it’s showing others around one of her favorite cities or preparing for her next adventure.
“If we were in Chicago, I could give you a pretty detailed walking tour of some of the city’s major architecture and building innovations,” Mohney added. “I have completed five sprint-distance and two Olympic-distance triathlons in the last three and a half years. Now I’m training to hike Italy’s Dolomites later this year. So. Many. Lu
