Directory Profile

Ileeia Smith serves as an Assistant Public Service Faculty member in the institute’s Infrastructure and Community Resilience Division. She supports communities and military installations in identifying mutually beneficial growth opportunities. Her work advances economic development, educational, historical, and cultural initiatives through regional outreach. In addition to her community engagement, she leads emergency management and disaster preparedness initiatives, including coordinating and implementing the annual Disaster Resilience Across the Chattahoochee Valley Conference. She also provides technical assistance to the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency’s Guide for School Safety Plans. Before joining the institute in 2022, she served as Director of the Office of Policy and Planning at the Alabama Department of Mental Health, where she was responsible for policy development, strategic planning, emergency management, and response efforts to the COVID-19 pandemic.