Natalie Bartholomew serves as community president of First Community Bank in NorthwestArkansas. A career banker with over 25 years of experience, she has expertise in management, strategic planning, lending, retail, culture building, human resources, and marketing.

Natalie has received many honors recognizing her work over the years and has served on a variety of community and industry specific committees and boards. Recently, she’s been named to the Arkansas Money & Politics 2025 Power Women in Banking and 2024 Arkansas’ Top Influencers lists. Additionally, the American Bankers Association named her as one of the 2023 ABA Emerging Leaders. She was named a University of Arkansas Agricultural Business and Economics Distinguished Young Alumni. She received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Arkansas and is a graduate of GSBC where she now serves as a faculty member.

In the summer of 2022, Natalie was named community president of Batesville, Arkansas-based First Community Bank and tasked with the market development and expansion into the Northwest Arkansas region with the opening of their Rogers location. Their newest location in Fayetteville opened in December of 2024 with additional branches coming in the future.

In November 2017, Natalie launched The Girl Banker platform to advocate for women in banking. Natalie uses this platform to act on her passion for educating young women on opportunities within the banking industry and raising awareness of what it means to be a community banker. The Girl Banker has grown to include a website, merchandise store, podcast, and active social media platforms which has offered Natalie the opportunity to speak at banking related events and conferences across the country.

She resides in Northwest Arkansas with her husband, Colt, and her two sons, Brody (15) and Witten (9). She serves on the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural Food and Life Sciences Alumni Society Board of Directors, American Bankers Association Bank Marketing Conference Board of Directors, and the Single Parent Scholarship Fund of NWA Capital Campaign Committee among other local community boards and committees.