Civic Engagement Event of Interest:
The National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc.-New Haven Metropolitan Chapter will be hosting a conversation with Tanya Rhodes Smith, MSW, Timothy Smith, and others about the importance of voter engagement and how we can get voters out and voting during the upcoming presidential election and every election - local or national.
Tanya Rhodes Smith, MSW is the Director of the Nancy A. Humphreys Institute for Political Social Work and Instructor in Residence at the UConn School of Social Work. As Director, she has overseen the expansion of the Institute’s Campaign School for Social Workers, which has trained 2,000 social workers to run for office and lead on campaigns; leads the development of nonpartisan voter engagement training for schools of social work and social service agencies; and strongly believes political engagement and voting are central to social work’s mission, impact and commitment to a more just society.
Tanya is a proud political social worker and human rights advocate. Her experience includes policy development, legislative advocacy, and community organizing as well as program development, evaluation, fundraising, campaigning, and research. Her previous employers include the Bridgeport Child Advocacy Coalition, DHA Associates, Person to Person, and the Center for Family Justice. She also served as a facilitator and coach for the Leadership Development Round table as well as volunteer for numerous nonprofit boards and campaigns.
Her teaching experience includes Program Planning, Development and Evaluation, Political Advocacy, and Political Social Work. She is one of the founders of the National Social Work Voter Mobilization Campaign (Voting is Social Work) and frequently speaks on topics related to civic engagement.
Mr. Smith is a veteran of both television and documentary production, having been a production executive with MSNBC, Unapix Entertainment, Newsweek Productions and now, the American Issues Initiative. For the American Issues Initiative, he is the executive producer on its new theatrical documentary, Rigged: The Voter Suppression Playbook.
At MSNBC, he was a senior producer with MSNBC’s Long Form (documentary) unit. There, he has executive produced documentaries and series with Lester Holt, Chuck Todd, Rachel Maddow, Norah O’Donnell, Chris Hayes, and Chris Matthews. He also headed up Long Form’s co-production efforts – working with Canadian and British production companies and broadcasters including: BBC, CBC, Channel 4 and 5.
While a vice president at Unapix, and then Newsweek Productions, Mr. Smith produced non-fiction series for TLC, History Channel, CNBC, MSNBC, National Geographic Channel, AMC and PBS, for which he produced programs for NOVA and Frontline.
Mr. Smith’s work has won two Emmys and five Emmys nominations, two Gracie Awards, a Grierson as well as Cable Ace and Genesis Award nominations. Two of his documentaries became television movies for HBO and ABC.
His programs and series have been supported by prestigious grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Sloan Foundation, Kauffman Foundation, JGS Foundation, Annenberg Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
He has written articles for The Washington Post, The Nation, Christian Science Monitor, Talking Points Memo and Brown Alumni Monthly. He received his B.A. with honors from Brown University and a masters from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He lives with his family in Wilton, CT.