Sessions
Mid-Day Keynote: "We are the change we seek."-Adam Smith
12:15 PM - 1:00 PM Sat
Smith currently serves as Executive Director for University Academic Advising at the University of Kentucky. Previous positions have included:
• Director of Multicultural, American Indian, and Retention Services at Metropolitan State University (St. Paul MN)
• Director of Undergraduate Academic Advising and Student Success at The University of Alabama
• Assistant Vice President for Student Success at The University of Akron (OH)
• Director of the TRIO Upward Bound program at Rock Valley College (IL) where he later served as the college’s Dean of Students and Community Outreach. He also was Rock Valley’s Associate Head Football Coach for six years.
He has also taught both graduate and undergraduate courses in Human Services, Human Resources, and Organizational Leadership at Judson University (Elgin IL).
Additionally, Smith has an extensive background in community advocacy, empowerment, and development through positions at Comprehensive Community Solutions, a major community development corporation, as Vice President for College Access and Success with Doorway to College Foundation, as “Education Czar” to former Rockford (IL) mayor Lawrence J. Morrissey, and while serving as the Executive Director of the Allied-Dunn’s Marsh Neighborhood Center in Madison WI.
A first-generation college graduate, Adam is committed to ensuring college access and success for all Americans and has spent his life working with young people as an advocate, mentor, leader, and empowering force. He works every day to attack the systems that act as barriers between marginalized populations, and educational and life success.
Adam Smith holds a Bachelors Degree in Theology and Pastoral Ministry from Concordia University, a Masters Degree in Educational Administration and Supervision from National-Louis University and has taken courses toward his doctorate in Education at The University of Alabama and University of Akron.