James D. Smith
Dr. James D. Smith, Ph.D. serves on the Board of Directors of the 100 Black Men of Greater Detroit Inc.James also serves on the Advisory Board of the Detroit Board Leadership Program, a Detroit Chamber of Commerce initiative with a mission to provide orientation and training for persons interested in serving on K-12 charter school boards in South East Michigan.
Prior Board service includes the Detroit Urban League, Lansing Urban League, Great Oaks Charter Academy in Detroit and the Lansing Area United Way Long Range Planning Committee.
As CEO and Managing Principal of Board Strong LLC, Dr. Smith provides nonprofit Board Governance, leadership training, strategic thinking and planning, program execution and implementation consulting services for nonprofit organizations in the Detroit area.
Since 2008, Dr. Smith has worked in the Grand Valley State University (GVSU) Charter Schools Office providing charter school board governance training, financial instruction and strategic consulting for many GVSU authorized charter school boards in South East Michigan.
Driven by his passion for student mentoring, Mr. Smithcontinues to serve as a mentor in the Detroit Midnight Golf Program. Since 2015 he has helped Detroit high school students develop and execute strategies for sustainable personal and professional success before,during and after college.
Mr. Smith worked for IBM for twenty-eight years. When he retired in 2001 his responsibilities as Director of Education and Government Consulting included leading a large revenue generating consulting practice that provided process improvement consulting,organizational change leadership training,and implementation and execution services to K-12 school districts, higher education organizations, and city, county and state governments in fifteen Midwestern States.
Dr. Smith earned a Ph.D.in Urban Education from Michigan State Universityand a Masters and Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Wichita State University.
James is marred, has two sons and two grandchildren.
Email: jdsmithphd@boardstrong.com
Cell phone: 248-642-4845