I'm a Pathfinder: Cindy Lang Blanton
May 5, 2022
ASHLAND, Ky. – “I always wanted to stay in the Ashland area, this is home,” said Ashland Community College alumni, Cindy Lang Blanton.
Cindy currently serves as Senior Vice President of Community Trust Bank, a role she has been in since 1997.
As Senior Vice President, Cindy is responsible for overseeing all the Ashland branches and its retail lenders.
“It’s diverse in that not only do I interact with customers, but I also interact with employees as well,” she said.
Cindy is a community advocate and is associated with The Salvation Army elected two terms as Chair of the Advisory Board and is a Lifetime member serving 24 years. She is Treasurer of the Ashland Senior Center, a Rotary Club member and past Community Events board member, The Ashland Cemetery Board and Continuing the Legacy Foundation Board member (formerly Our Lady of Bellefonte Hospital Foundation). She has participated many years with the March of Dimes, United Way and Relay for Life Fundraisers.
A graduate of Paul G. Blazer High School, she enrolled at ACC as a full-time student receiving the Hope Memorial Scholarship in the fall of 1975, straight out of high school. She also worked while attending ACC part-time at Woolco Department Store in Ashland.
“I applied to the Dental Hygiene Program, but the program was already filled by the time I submitted my application, so I was placed on a wait list. After so long, that wait list was eliminated, so I went back to my advisor to find out what I needed to do to enroll in the business program,” she said.
Cindy says many of the courses she took at ACC prepared her for a career of working with and for people.
“I took classes that I felt was going to help me in the business at a job somewhere,” she said.
Cindy graduated from ACC in the spring of 1978 and got her first job at Community Trust Bank, formerly Second National Bank, the following fall as a teller. From there, she “climbed the ladder” and worked many different jobs within the bank until she reached the position she is in today.
“I think ACC provided me with the knowledge and somewhat experience to get ready for the business world, even though I didn’t know this is where I’d be. The guidance I received was very helpful to me,” she said.
Cindy is also a graduate of the Kentucky School of Banking at the University of Louisville.
She says she has worked for many bank presidents, gone through three name changes and eight or nine system changes during her tenure at Community Trust Bank and it’s been challenging at times.
“It’s been a learning process every day at work. Banks are so regulated with policies and procedures we must follow, it can be overwhelming sometimes to new people at first. But it’s a new day every day and I’ve loved every minute of it,” Cindy says.
She says she hopes to retire next year after over 44 years of service at the bank.
Cindy found her path at ACC and believes that others can do the same at ACTC.
“I think everyone has a choice to do something for themselves,” she said. “Find something you love and stick with it. “Don’t give up easily.”
