The Power of Connection and Collaboration: Leadership Lessons in Payments with Guest Stephanie Prebish
Payments On Tap Podcast: Season 1 - Episode 05
Episode Summary
In this episode of Payments on Tap, host Elyssa Morgan sits down with Stephanie Prebish, AAP, AFPP, APRP, CTP, Senior Managing Director of Association Services at Nacha, for the Women in Leadership: Payments Edition series. Their conversation centers on the connective tissue of the payments industry—relationships, collaboration, and the often‑invisible work that sustains trust at scale.
Stephanie reflects on her career journey and her role overseeing membership, education, accreditation, and conferences at Nacha. She shares how leadership in payments is less about individual visibility and more about building systems, communities, and shared standards that allow the ecosystem to function. From stewarding national accreditation programs to guiding industry‑wide convenings, her work illustrates how influence is built through consistency, credibility, and long‑term commitment.
Rather than focusing on disruption for its own sake, the episode highlights the value of continuity, collaboration, and institutional memory. Stephanie argues that the future of payments leadership depends on people who understand both the infrastructure and the relationships behind it—and who are willing to invest in the industry as a collective, not just as competitors.
Guest‑at‑a‑glance
💡 Name: Stephanie Prebish, AAP, AFPP, APRP, CTP
💡 What she does: Senior Managing Director, Association Services
💡 Company: Nacha
💡 Noteworthy: Oversees membership, education, accreditation programs, conferences, and sales at Nacha; has played a central role in shaping industry education and professional standards, including national accreditation programs and the Smarter Faster Payments Conference
💡 Where to find her: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-prebish-aap-afpp-aprp-ctp-259b336/
Key Insights
Leadership in payments is built through connection, not spotlight
Stephanie’s career underscores a quieter form of leadership—one rooted in enabling others. From education programs to industry conferences, much of her work happens behind the scenes, creating spaces where collaboration and shared learning can happen. The takeaway for financial institutions is that leadership does not always look like innovation headlines. Often, it looks like sustained investment in people, standards, and relationships that allow the system to evolve without breaking.
Industry progress depends on shared infrastructure and trust
Payments only work when participants agree on Rules, expectations, and accountability. Stephanie’s role at Nacha highlights how trade associations and industry bodies serve as connective infrastructure, aligning diverse stakeholders around common goals. This perspective reframes leadership as stewardship: maintaining trust, updating frameworks, and ensuring the ecosystem moves forward together rather than fragmenting under pressure.
Education and accreditation shape long‑term resilience
One of the strongest themes in the conversation is the importance of professional development. Accreditation programs and industry education do more than validate skills—they create a common language and baseline of understanding across institutions. For leaders, this is a reminder that resilience is not just about technology investment, but about preparing people to manage complexity, risk, and change over time.
Episode Highlights
Building the industry together
Stephanie describes her role overseeing association services at Nacha, emphasizing how membership, education, conferences, and accreditation all serve a single purpose: strengthening the payments ecosystem through connection and shared understanding.
“I oversee membership, education, conferences, accreditation and sales—pretty much everything that Nacha does as a trade association.”
Why collaboration outlasts disruption
The conversation turns to how the payments industry has evolved over decades, with progress driven less by isolated breakthroughs and more by sustained collaboration among financial institutions, networks, and industry groups.
Leadership beyond titles
Stephanie reflects on leadership as influence without formal authority—shaping outcomes by bringing people together, aligning interests, and keeping the long view in focus.
Check back on Thursday for the next episode of the Payments on Tap podcast!