Eileen Jennings

Eileen Jennings currently serves as Sr. Director of Small Business for Arvest Bank, which she joined as a commercial credit analyst in 2004. Eileen has held many small business and commercial lending positions within Arvest and helped start a wholly-owned, non-bank subsidiary (Arvest Opportunity Fund) that focuses on serving the underbanked through lending and education. Eileen has received numerous professional awards, including being named a member of Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 in 2014, Commercial Banker of the Year for Arkansas in 2016, and 2017 Business Advocate of the Year for the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce. In 2024, she was awarded the Emerging Leader award by the American Bankers Association.

Born and raised in rural Madison County, Arkansas, southeast of Fayetteville, Eileen is deeply involved in the Northwest Arkansas community. Eileen was a graduate of Leadership Fayetteville XXVII, is a former member of the Board of Directors for the NWA chapter of the Risk Management Association, and has served on the Board of the NWA Land Trust for over a decade. Eileen is a two-time breast cancer survivor and frequently speaks on the subject. She lives with her husband and daughter in the Ozarks, where she enjoys sewing, fly-fishing, working around the farm, and connecting with her local community.

Eileen holds a B.S.B.A in International Economics and Business with an emphasis in European studies from the University of Arkansas and is a graduate of the Southwestern Graduate School of Banking at SMU in Dallas, Texas.