Jacqueline Hickman, assistant vice president and executive banking relationship manager, Zions Bank in Boise

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For Jacqueline Hickman, 31, the click-clack of high heels on a wood floor is a defining sound of her childhood. Her mother, a CPA, would come home from work and head straight to the kitchen to start preparing dinner.

“I am really proud to come from a working mom, and I wouldn’t be who I am today if I didn’t grow up watching her balance it all,” Hickman says.

In fact, she remembers coming home to her parent’s house after her first day on the job as a teller at U.S. Bank after graduating from the University of Idaho and hearing her own heels on the wood floor.

“I told my mom, ‘I sound like you!’” she says.

Today, Hickman is a successful professional woman in her own right, with six years in the banking industry under her belt and several performance awards to show for it. She held the record for the most referrals in the western district in that first teller position, and moved up the ranks to universal banker, personal banker, and assistant branch manager at U.S. Bank, where she won awards for being the No.1 banker in both the district and the region, the Top Performer Award in 2012 and the Shield Award in 2013. She moved to Key Bank as an assistant branch manager before being recruited in 2015 to Zions Bank as an executive banking relationship manager.

In her current role, Hickman is responsible for working with clients to develop relationships and help them meet their financial goals. She enjoys helping clients save for their first house or set up savings plans for their childrens’ educations, and still has a Finding Nemo postcard that one of her clients brought to her after she helped him set up a savings plan to take his family to Disneyland.

“It makes me proud to know I’ve been a part of those life goals people have,” she says.

That ability to make strong relationships was developed over years of work in the nonprofit world. Throughout high school and college, Hickman worked as a camp counselor at the Treasure Valley Family YMCA and as a youth development professional at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Ada County. She pictured herself working in the nonprofit world professionally before she realized she could transfer those skills to the banking world and continue her nonprofit work as a volunteer.

Today, she works with a variety of organizations in the area, including the Basque Museum and Cultural Center, where she serves on the board, and Junior Achievement, where she teaches first graders. More recently, she’s become involved with the Idaho Food Bank. To unwind, she enjoys playing tennis.

“Jacqueline has a servant’s heart and she is a leader in the purest sense,” says Jacque Deahl, director of achievement for Junior Achievement of Idaho. “No job is ever too large or small and she tackles each and every assignment with fervor and creativity.”

Through all her activities, Hickman has found herself entrenched in the Boise community.

“My life would be very different in another place.” she says. “I truly believe that in this environment we’re fortunate to have in Boise, you never do it alone.”

Most memorable airplane ride: “My mom and sister and I flew to Spain to the Basque country when I was 26. I remember trying to keep my eyes open on the tour bus the next day – I  had never been awake for so long! Overcoming the exhaustion and sheer excitement of going somewhere I’ve never been and experiencing my culture and history was really great.”