Peoples Bank & Trust Continues to Build the Team

Pana, IL: Peoples Bank & Trust is proud to announce the promotion of a two key employees, Sierra Spears and Ashley Basso and the addition of Kayla Sain, Consumer Banking Officer, Kera Pusch, AVP, Consumer Banking and Matt Harris, VP, Government Guaranteed Loans.

Sierra Spears has been promoted to Assistant Vice President, Consumer Banking. Sierra joined the Bank in May 2024 as a Consumer Banking Officer with the merger of Arcola First Bank. In her role, Sierra will provide leadership to deliver exemplary quality banking services to consumer banking customers in the Arcola branch area. Sierra has almost ten years’ experience in banking and customer service. She is a graduate of Arcola High School and lives in Arcola with her fiancé, Jose and two sons, Luca and Noah. In her spare time, she likes to exercise, bake and spend time with her family. She helps her fiancé organize and operate the annual broomcorn parade each year during the Arcola Broomcorn Festival. Sierra is an asset to our Consumer Banking department. She is knowledgeable of the products and services we offer and is always willing to go out of her way to assist our customers.

Ashley Basso has been promoted to the Vice President, Strategic Initiatives and Senior Deposit Officer. Ashley will lead the implementation of business improvements and special products and provide support to correct weaknesses and build on opportunities in all areas of the Bank. She will also continue to provide sales and marketing of non-credit bank services to business customers. Ashley joined the bank in 2007 and diligently worked her way up from part-time teller to her current position. She is a graduate of Athens High School and the University of Illinois with a degree in Business Administration and History. She is also a graduate of the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Ashley lives in Taylorville with her husband, Andrew. Ashley has shown professional leadership in every position that she has previously held.

Kayla Sain has joined the Bank as a Consumer Banking Officer in our Altamont Branch. Kayla has been in banking for 18 years. She has experience across the board from teller, CSR, branch manager and consumer and residential loan officer. Kayla has been married to her high school sweetheart for 16 years and they have three children and two dogs. Their children are involved in every sport there is, so they spend most of their time running them from sport to sport. She enjoys coaching baseball in the summer and spends a lot of time volunteering at the school. Kayla likes to travel, go on cruises and work out in the gym. Kayla was born and raised in Altamont, so her passion for the town runs deep and she enjoys helping in as many ways as possible. Kayla is an experienced banker and we are very pleased that she has agreed to join us.

Kera Pusch recently joined our staff as Assistant Vice President, Consumer Banking in Waverly. She looks forward to providing consumer loans, residential mortgages, home equity lines of credit and all types of deposit accounts to her customers in the Waverly area. Kera has over 17 years of banking, lending and secondary market loan experience. She is currently enrolled at Lincoln Land College working toward her Master’s degree. Kera is a lifelong resident of Thayer, where she lives with her husband and six children. Kera and her husband are both heavily involved in coaching various sports teams. She likes to garden, volunteers at her children schools with various activities and they do a lot of camping. Kera enjoys helping client’s problem solve, building relationships and supporting growth for all clients.

Matthew Harris has joined the Bank as Vice President, Government Guaranteed Credit. In his role, Matt will team with other Business Bankers in all locations to guide the structuring, underwriting, processing and servicing of USDA B&I and US SBA guaranteed loans. He will support the prospecting and sales process, the origination and closing process, and the servicing and collection process of relationships including government guaranteed credit. Matt has been with USDA Rural Development since 2004 and in his previous role he led Illinois’ IRP, RBDG, VAPG, B&I and REAP guaranteed loan programs under their USDA’s Business and Cooperative Programs division. Matt is a graduate of Illini Central School in Mason City, IL and received a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Western Illinois University. Matt lives in Peoria with his wife, Christina, and three children Isabella, Millie, Lila. Matt will be a valuable new addition to the Credit Administration group.

“The talents and abilities of our employees are very valuable to our team. We are fortunate to have an outstanding group of people to serve our customers now and in the future,” said John Gardner, Peoples Bank & Trust President and CEO “and I’m very pleased Sierra and Ashley have agreed to assume even greater responsibility in our organization and Kayla, Kera and Matt will be a great addition to our banking team.”

Peoples Bank & Trust is a locally owned and managed independent community bank with thirteen offices located in Pana, Taylorville, Altamont, Tower Hill, Arcola, Arthur, Tuscola, Charleston, Springfield, Morrisonville, Palmyra, Waverly and White Hall. Peoples is a full service bank offering outstanding customer service to consumers, small business, and farmers in Central Illinois. People First Bancshares, Inc., with corporate offices in Pana, Illinois, is the holding company for Peoples Bank & Trust.