Cynthia L. Blankenship is a past chairman of the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), the only national trade association that exclusively represents community banks. A charter shareholder, director and vice chairman/corporate president of Bank of the West in Grapevine, Texas, Blankenship serves on the ICBA Board of Directors. She has been ICBA Chairman, chairman-elect and vice-chairman. Blankenship has chaired ICBA’s Bank Education, Congressional Affairs, Membership/Marketing, Nominating, Policy Development and Strategic Planning committees. She is immediate past Chair of ICBA Services Network. She most recently served on the FDIC Community Banking Advisory Board.

Blankenship has testified many times on Capitol Hill before the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee. She has attended meetings at the White House and participated in a nationally broadcast press conference with President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. She continues to have a presence in Washington, D.C., by attending meetings at the Treasury, Federal Reserve Bank, CFPB and the Small Business Administration.

Cynthia was chairman of the Independent Bankers Association of Texas in 2002 and chairman of the IBAT Education Foundation, which raised more than $1 million for financial literacy. Blankenship was appointed Dean for Bankers and chaired the Southwestern School of Banking Foundation at Southern Methodist University. In 2009, she received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Southwestern Graduate School of Banking – Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business. In 2004, U.S. Banker magazine named her one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Banking. In November, 2010, she was named as one of the 2010 Great Women of Texas. In 2014, she and husband, Gary, were awarded the D.E. Box Citizen of the Year by the Grapevine Chamber of Commerce.

Blankenship has served her community through the Colleyville Women’s Club, the Community Bankers Education Foundation, the Bear Creek Community Development Project, Dallas Summer Musicals and activities relating to Community Banking Month at Bank of the West. She is a member of the Grapevine Chamber of Commerce and recipient of the 1999 Arts Education Award and the 2004 Colleyville Women’s Club Novus Award. In 2009, she chaired the Grapevine based festival’s GrapeFest annual Gala, which focuses on Texas wineries and is one of the largest community events in the Southwest. Ms. Blankenship currently sits on the Grapevine Convention and Visitors Bureau board of directors.
Her community bank specializes in small-business lending and has eight locations.

Blankenship lives in Grapevine, Texas, with her husband, Gary. They have three daughters, Lisa, Bailey and Samantha.