Leadership, Board Members & Meetings

Keisha L. Smith, MPA

Director Smith is a seasoned executive with over 20 years of experience spanning the non-profit, private, and public sectors, with a strong focus on advancing social equity and justice in health and human services. Over the past fifteen years, she’s worked on policy and programmatic efforts to address critical social determinants, including access to quality health care, education, employment, and voting. Currently, as the Executive Director of DeKalb VRE, she oversees a team of over 30 full-time staff, 200 temporary employees, and nearly 2,000 poll officials, ensuring compliance with election laws while striving for inclusive, equitable, and accurate elections for DeKalb County’s nearly 600,000 voters.

Before leading DeKalb VRE, she served as the Executive Director of the Virginia Health Workforce Development Authority, where she secured new multi-million state and federal funding and expanded partnerships to enhance the state’s health care workforce. She also held leadership roles in local government, including as Special Assistant to the Chief Administrative Officer, where she developed policies and led initiatives like the Mayor’s Healthy Richmond Campaign and the Blue-Ribbon Commission on Health Policy. Earlier in her career, she worked with the Virginia Department of Health’s Office of Health Equity, overseeing health workforce recruitment and retention programs. Prior to her transition into the public sector, she held various leadership roles in the private financial services industry.