LEAD FWD- Recap from Linda Smith, Embassy National Bank, 2025 CBA-ICBA Scholarship Winner

Linda Smith, Senior Vice President and BSA/AML/CRA/OFAC Officer, Embassy National Bank, Lawrenceville, recently attended the ICBA LEAD FWD Summit, representing Georgia.

"We’re always excited to see our bankers engage in leadership development opportunities. Ongoing professional growth not only strengthens safe and sound banking practices but also fuels talent development and institutional innovation. Thank you, Linda, for sharing your recent experience — opportunities to connect, network, and learn are truly invaluable," said Becky Soto, Director of Professional Development at CBA.

I am a recent proud winner of the ICBA’s Lead FWD Summit 2025 Scholarship.  The Summit was held in Bloomington, Minnesota at the Radisson BLU Mall of America, where a person could shop until she literally dropped. Mall of America was just steps away from the conference. The summit was September 8^th, and 9^th and it was great.

Mission Excellence was an experience that all leaders should use as a managerial refresher course and participate  at least once a year. The Summit offered general sessions that included peer-to-peer activity, Dynamic speakers, and topics such as “AI” to “Tips for dealing with Difficult people.”  Everyone was engaged and thriving as a team during the sessions. The conference hall was filled with a variety of Banking Talents from CEOs to Branch Managers.

Community Banks are necessary and essential for the assessment areas of each county in which they reside, and so are the Bankers. It is critical for community bankers to be well rounded, empowered to provide practical solutions to existing and new customers as well as offer exceptional service.

The speakers, Dr. Jermaine Davis, Pat Dwyer, Lindsay LaNore, and Rebeca Romero Rainey (to name a few) offered inspirational and comprehensive tips on ways to lead with excellence.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Community Bankers Association of Georgia  for choosing me as the recipient of the LEADFWD Scholarship. There was one reading that I ran across in the Summit materials that I now have on my desk. It says, “In any given moment, we have two options: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety.”

 – Abraham Maslow .  “I choose to step forward into growth.”