Doris A. Smith

Doris A. Smith has been engaged in community action programs to provide health care, education, aids intervention, neighborhood development, commercial corridor restoration and parkland preservation for more than thirty years. Her career has included service as an executive for Pennsylvania’s Department of Health, for Episcopal Community Services’ innovative home health care and hospice programs, and for Oxford Health Plan’s Healthy Choices Program. She is currently the Chair of the Philadelphia Civil Service Commission and helps resolve issues that affect the city and its diverse workforce. In addition to professional involvement as an early and vocal proponent of wellness programs for economically challenged population groups, she has been active as a commissioner for Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park, as a founder of 100 Black Women, as a board member of Philadelphia’s Women’s Way Fundraising Program and as a pioneering participant in the US Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Through her work as a liaison to the US Department of Health and Human Services and the Pennsylvania Department of Welfare, Mrs. Smith acquired knowledge of public administration, communications, public program planning, resource coordination, government affairs, and, urban, suburban and rural human services. She played key roles in advancing home health care and in arguing for third party payments to support these as well as geriatric care programs. Since retiring from full time employment, she has intervened in the revival of two human service agencies: one, the Exodus Project helps school drop outs secure GEDs and find ways to secure gainful employment training; the other, a neighborhood development corporation that works to improve commercial and residential streets in a distressed area of West Philadelphia. Her work with these agencies involved her in monitoring programs and staff, overseeing redevelopment initiatives, preparing program activity budgets, and working closely with community residents. Mrs. Smith holds a Masters Degree in Urban Planning from the University of Pennsylvania and has attended executive leadership programs at Harvard University. She focused her master thesis on the then new development of Columbia, Maryland by the Rouse Corporation and has maintained an interest in urban development ever since. She has received extensive training for leadership development, strategic planning, program evaluation and project management and has participated as an instructor in a number of “Train the Trainer” programs for human service organizations and trade groups. In 2008, she was a key member of transition team organized to help Philadelphia’s new Mayor Michael Nutter in his efforts to revitalize one of the largest cities in the United States. As a result of her professional and political act ivities, Mrs. Smith has many links to colleagues around the nation and can easily secure information from key leaders involved in health and human services, neighborhood revitalization, crime prevention, senior and child care, nutrition and housing programs. Like her colleagues at Cornerstone Consultants, Mrs. Smith has worked overseas. She learned from China’s Barefoot Doctors’ Brigade about the importance of early intervention and wellness promotion and has participated in service programs in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean region.