Hopkinsville banker Elizabeth McCoy has received the 2023 Woman in Leadership Award from the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. It was presented Tuesday during the chamber’s third annual Women’s Summit in Lexington.
McCoy, a native of London, Kentucky, is CEO of Planters Bank and serves on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. She is a University of Kentucky board trustee and a past chairwoman for the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. She has served numerous civic and economic development organizations in Hopkinsville, including the Hopkinsville Industrial Foundation, the Hopkinsville-Christian County Economic Development Council and the Christian County Chamber of Commerce.
Previously she received the Martha Layne Collins Leadership Award, the Laurel County Homecoming Out of Towner Award and the United Way of the Pennyrile’s J. William Flowers Award.
McCoy is a certified public accountant and earned her bachelor’s degree and MBA at UK. She is married to Hal McCoy, and they have a son, Griffin.
Ashli Watts, the Kentucky Chamber’s CEO and president, was slated to interview McCoy during the summit’s daylong program.
Among several speakers, Whitney Austin gave the keynote address about her advocacy for gun safety measures, including comprehensive background checks at the federal level. She survived a bank mass shooting on Sept. 6, 2018, in downtown Cincinnati that killed three others. Austin is the founder and executive director of Whitney/Strong, which seeks bipartisan support for gun safety measures in Kentucky and Ohio, as well as nationally.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.
