Elizabeth Smith
Director of Client Services Since 2009
Born in South Bend, Indiana, Elizabeth Smith attended high school in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania with a Bachelor's Degree in Human Services. Prior to coming to Open Door America, Beth worked as a residential services case manager in Maryland foster care.
Beth has been an integral part of Open Door America since 2009. Initially a case manager and community outreach worker, Beth's insights about impoverished families have been critical to the development and constant improvement of the Individual Life Plan (ILP), the organization's signature case management methodology. In working with hundreds of ODA clients, Beth has earned a well-deserved reputation for her compassionate heart and clear-headed management. Beth was promoted to Director of Client Services in 2019.
She is married to Jon, a Maryland banker, and is the proud mother of three young boys -- Colton, Caleb, and Jathan. Elizabeth loves the outdoors and is an avid runner and hiker. She is very involved in the women's ministry and missions teams at her church in suburban Baltimore.
From Our Blog
The Reverse Engineers of Poverty
BALTIMORE 15 YEARS AGO — Weaving our way through the chaotic streets of East Baltimore scrupulously plotting which corners to avoid at all costs after dark, we were unintentional co-conspirators in the life and death struggles of people we would never meet. Every choice we made dripped with sad, unintended consequences.
Buoyed by simple aspirations of an awakened America, we were intent on creating a renaissance vanguard one block at a time. Home to 300 murders a year and an unflinching poverty rate of 30 percent, we elected to see Baltimore as a city of endless possibilities. We believed in her people. Even in the early 2000s, the fearless optimism of the 1960s still seeded our thoughts and actions amidst unbelievable pain and despair.
GIVING OPPORTUNITIES
Big or small it all adds up!