Making a difference is something some individuals discuss. Cynthia Washington is already doing it. People note the silent strength she exudes as soon as she enters any room. She doesn’t want to be a star. She’s looking for an effect. Cynthia’s narrative is one of unwavering determination and genuine grit, from her high-achieving childhood in Los Angeles to her current position as a renowned leader and social media influencer. She started a movement, raised a child, developed careers, and earned every seat she holds. She is a powerful and transformative leader today, and her work speaks louder than any title could.
Dream Big, Then Do the Work
Cynthia grew up in Los Angeles, where her parents made one thing very clear from an early age: Hollywood was not the path. Business was. That early direction planted three bold dreams inside her: to lead an empire, to work in a downtown financial district, and making her mark in Silicon Valley. Most people carry one big dream. She carried three, and she achieved all of them.
Her academic foundation started at California Polytechnic University, Pomona, where she studied International Business and Marketing, and apprenticed a restaurant entrepreneur who gave her one of the most important educations of her life. Cynthia watched him grow from a local restaurateur into an international business mogul. From him, she developed her business expectations like- quality, service, cost control, results, and the discipline to strive for excellence at every level without cutting corners. Those lessons stayed with her. Later, she pursued the CMO Program at Columbia University’s Business School studying Corporate Governance, Macroeconomics and Finance, an experience that helped her sharpen her voice and turn her growing online presence into something formal and intentional.
By the time Cynthia reached her current chapter at Zions Bank, she had already lived through three distinct and deeply fulfilling careers. Each one built on the last. Each one brought her closer to who she is today.
Leading Inside Zions Bank: Where Skills Meet Strategy
At Zions Bank, Cynthia works within Retail Banking Administration on the BSS Team. In this role, she partners directly with Senior Vice Presidents and Executive Vice Presidents on system and product management initiatives. Her work touches clients, branches, and the full enterprise. She communicates in the language of risk, scalability, operational efficiency, and client experience. Every update she delivers is framed around business integrity and outcomes. Time is money, and she respects that truth completely.
Zions Bank quickly recognised what Cynthia brings. Her ability to walk into a system, spot the gaps, and move toward solutions is something she developed over decades of varied experience. She now works on special projects that carry real weight; projects with direct impact on clients and the bank as a whole. For her, this role is not just a job. It is the meeting point of everything she has built across her accomplished career.
Trust and integrity are central to how she works. Whether she is sitting with a SVP or supporting a client and/or branch team through a period of change, she makes people feel like they matter. Cynthia dresses professionally, arrives prepared, and stays focused on solutions. That consistency, shown every single day, is what has moved her from execution-focused roles into rooms where decisions are shaped, and directions are set.
The Turning Point: From Corporate Pressure to Personal Purpose
Before Zions Bank, Cynthia served as an executive for a Silicon Valley Medicare Sales Company operating in Utah. She was a single mother, at the time raising a teenager, building compliant sales teams, developing future leaders, and cultivating a healthy culture. In California, she had always been treated as an equal. She had male allies before that phrase even existed in the workplace. Utah was different.
She was told, in so many words, to stop being a female leader and simply be a leader. The comment stung, but more than that, it clarified something she had been feeling for a while. Misalignment is a signal. She listened to that signal. Working closely with her executive coach, she built a careful exit strategy and stepped away.
What followed was a season Cynthia calls her Humble Quest. It was a strategic sabbatical, a mom mission. She immersed herself in learning from the best across every industry she could access. She met some of the most driven and forward-thinking women in Utah- women who became real friends and genuine allies. Together, they shared one vision: to level up the next generation and build something better for those coming behind them.
LVL UP with CW: When a Mother’s Mission Becomes a Movement
LVL UP with CW grew out of the simplest and most powerful place a mission can come from: a mother’s love for her daughter. Cynthia started this work because she wanted better for her daughter, for the high schoolers who gathered at her home to study, and for every young person watching and wondering if there was a place for them in the world of business.
Her Columbia advisor recognised the depth of her presence on social media and encouraged her to formalise it into a consultative business. Cynthia did exactly that. Today, LVL UP with CW is a multi-dimensional platform that serves businesses, brands, and communities across Park City, Salt Lake City, throughout Silicon Slopes and the world. It creates room at the table for the next generation. It bridges gaps. It amplifies the good work of local and global businesses. And it does all of this with authenticity, heart, and a clear sense of purpose.
Recognition That Reflects a Life Well Lived
In 2025, Cynthia received two awards that speak directly to the kind of leader she is. She accepted the CXO Leadership Impact Award at the CXO Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, and the SheTech Champion Impact Award at the Women Tech Awards in Salt Lake City, Utah. The latter recognition reflects over five years of supporting thousands of high school students as a mentor, a volunteer, and a living proof that ambition has no ceiling.
Cynthia also sits on several philanthropic boards, where she applies the same presence and communication skills that define her banking career. Her mentees describe her as someone whose energy fills the room. They say she uses her voice to help them find theirs, that she gives them hope, and that when they watch her, they believe the glass ceiling is finally cracking. She is also the author of Mind Matters: The Story of My Life, a memoir that offers a rare and honest look at the mind behind the mission.
What She Believes About Leading Well
The values Cynthia carries into every room are the same ones she has carried her whole career: integrity, agility, authenticity, clear communication, emotional intelligence, and the courage to think bigger. She believes in building teams that genuinely care and in welcoming different ideas and voices to the table. These are not just words for her. They are the daily practice of how she works and lives.
Cynthia has also done the challenging work of unlearning. She let go of her ego. She redefined success. She once measured it in income and material markers. Now she measures it in gratitude, love, and alignment with what truly matters. Cynthia has come to believe that a meaningful life can be built at any income level, and that it all starts with a positive mindset.
Building an Immortal Legacy
Cynthia calls herself a super hyphenated career woman, and that description barely covers it. She is a banker and an entrepreneur. She is a mentor and a mother. She is a board member and an author. Cynthia began this work not for recognition but for her daughter, and that is why she is still doing everything she does today.
The legacy she is building is clear and consistent: use your influence for good. Money is a tool. The real power lives in the mind. Her IMPACT acrostic captures it perfectly: Impossible dreams, Made Possible with love, Awareness and action, Care, courage, compassion, and the understanding that The time is now, together. That is not a slogan. That is a life philosophy. And Cynthia lives it every single day.
