Dr. Tracey Smith serves as Director of Community Health at Illinois Public Health Association (IPHA) after 22 years in academia and community health centers. She has a Doctorate in Nursing Practice with a focus on health literacy and a Master of Community Health Nursing with a minor in multicultural nursing.   
 
Dr. Smith’s leadership in community health and 15 years of experience as a CHW allow her to engage multiple types of health care providers and customers. She has led support-service programs and Community Health Workers integration efforts within police systems, schools, healthcare clinics, and community-based organizations.  
 
Dr. Smith has secured over $70 million to advance Community Health Worker programs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Smith and her team were selected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Illinois Department of Public Health to administer the Pandemic Health Navigator Program – a centerpiece of Illinois’s COVID-19 mitigation, vaccination and contact tracing efforts. She remains instrumental to the development of inaugural Community Health Worker training and certification programs, including as a member of the Illinois Community Health Worker Advisory Board.   
 
Building trauma informed care systems has also been an integral part of Dr. Smith’s work. In addition to volunteering her time improving the care and health literacy in rural areas, Dr. Smith has served on numerous boards, including those of a critical access hospital and a rural school board.