Strategic Planning

Strategic Plan Development

How do you reach your goals? Make a plan! We’re excited to develop Smith’s strategic plan over the coming months, allowing us to outline actionable goals for the college.

In fall 2024, a Strategic Planning Steering Committee—composed of trustees, faculty, staff, students, and alums, and assisted by Wellspring Consulting—began the process of developing Smith’s strategic plan. In addition to the committee, the entire Smith community is actively participating throughout the process, providing input and feedback through a series of working groups. Find more information about the process and how you can be involved.

President and President’s Team members
  • Sarah Willie-LeBreton, President
  • Joanna Olin, Chief of Staff and Liaison for Government Relations
  • David DeSwert, Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration
  • Daphne Lamothe, Provost and Dean of the Faculty and Professor of Africana Studies
  • Elena Palladino, Secretary of the Board of Trustees, Secretary of the College
Smith College Board of Trustees members
  • Johan Aurik ’86, Board of Trustees member
  • Claudia San Pedro ’91, Board of Trustees member, Vice Chair of Resources & Operations Committee
Current student body member
  • Ehle DeVaughn ’25, SGA President, Economics major
Current staff member
  • ej seibert ’08, Director of Accessibility
Current faculty
  • Nathan Derr, Chair of Faculty Council, Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, Chair of the Program in Biochemistry Director of the Center for Microscopy and Imaging
  • Payal Banerjee, Associate Professor of Sociology

Academic Exploration
  • Daphne Lamothe, Provost and Dean of the Faculty and Professor of Africana Studies
  • Jennifer Joyce, Dean of the First-Year Class
  • Terry-Ann Craigie, Associate Professor of Economics
  • Becca Thomases, Professor of Mathematical Sciences
  • Janelle Bradshaw, Trustee
  • Minh Ly, Associate Director for Assessment, Institutional Research
  • Margot Audero ’26, Engineering major
  • Dawn Fulton, Professor of French Studies
Leadership & Career
  • Denise McKahn, Associate Provost
  • Faith McClellan, Dean of Career Development, Lazarus Center
  • Fraser Stables, Associate Dean for Integrative Learning, Professor of Art
  • Erin Cohn ’00, Director, Wurtele Center for Leadership
  • Christie Kennedy ’10, Director of Alumnae Leadership and Career Engagement
  • Ann Silverman, Trustee
  • Ehle DeVaughn ’25, SGA President, Economics major
  • Bozena “Boz” Welborne, Associate Professor and Chair of Middle East Studies, Associate Professor of Government
Community
  • Samantha Earp, Vice President for Information Technology
  • ej seibert ’08, Director of Accessibility
  • Sophia Baez, Associate Director, Multicultural Affairs
  • Chiderah Emeakoroha ’27, Government major
  • Chris Aiken, Professor of Dance
  • Bill Peterson, Professor of Psychology
  • Liz Klarich, Associate Professor of Anthropology
  • Cecilia Edwards ’88, Trustee

We want to hear from you!

We’re in the concurrent stages of researching/collecting input and establishing direction. You’re always welcome to submit feedback via the updated Smith College strategic planning response form or the physical suggestion boxes located next to the Campus Center Café or in the West Street Facilities building.

Timeline & More Information

Research and collect input from August–October 2024 and then again from December 2024–January 2025. Establish direction from November 2024–March 2025. Launch between Summer and Fall 2025.

Letters from President Sarah

Research/Collect Input

We aim to engage in a planning process that is inclusive and collaborative—we’ll be seeking input in a variety of ways from all Smith community members, including faculty, staff, students, alums, and Trustees. Through the fall and early winter, Wellspring will:
  • Conduct baseline research on Smith College through a review of internal data and an initial set of 1:1 interviews with certain community members, including members of the Strategic Planning Steering Committee
  • Engage in a round of internal listening with 100–175 people, including three days of engagement opportunities on campus
  • Conduct an analysis of the higher education landscape, learning from analogous organizations and benchmarking Smith against similar colleges

Establish Direction

The Strategic Planning Steering Committee will analyze and discuss the data gathered through the research phase to begin to define the strategic direction for Smith. As the strategy begins to take shape, Wellspring will conduct a second round of internal listening to test ideas and receive feedback from the community, helping the Committee refine the strategy and define organizational implications. Wellspring will also build financial projections to further inform decision-making.

Prepare for Implementation

Throughout the spring, Wellspring will support Smith in defining how it will carry out the strategy—who will carry out what work, by when. We expect to launch the plan in fall of 2025. 

Last updated: March 26, 2025

I understand Smith is engaged in a strategic planning process. What is a strategic plan?
A strategic plan is an organization’s road map for the future. It typically includes several high-level goals, as well as objectives and/or initiatives within each of those goals, that an organization seeks to achieve in a defined time frame. Engaging in a strategic planning process offers an institution like Smith a moment to pause and consider how it can best achieve its mission in the coming years, and what changes may be necessary in order to lay the groundwork for continued success. It also offers community members an opportunity to participate in shaping the future of the college.

I’ve heard that Smith is also starting a comprehensive campus use planning process. What is that and how is it different from strategic planning?
Smith has engaged Sasaki, an interdisciplinary architecture, planning, landscape, and design firm to help the college consider its current and future needs related to physical space on campus. The campus use plan will provide a framework for the development of the built environment at Smith, including infrastructure, facilities and land use, to support and enable the strategic plan goals. Learn more about Sasaki’s work with Smith.

How will these processes work together, and what benefit is there to undertaking both processes simultaneously?
The campus use planning team is coordinating with and will draw from our ongoing strategic planning efforts to ensure a close alignment between the college’s mission and strategic priorities and the use and experience of space on campus. Our partners at Wellspring and Sasaki are collaboratively sharing data and insights on developing priorities and will continue to coordinate on updates and community-wide feedback forums as both plans progress. We are delighted to undertake these two processes simultaneously, which will allow us to avoid duplication of efforts and ensure both plans are designed to support and enhance one another.

What are Smith’s strategic goals?
Drawing upon this extensive community input and data collection, the Steering Committee has developed a set of strategic goals to guide Smith for the next 8–10 years. They are:

  1. Inspire and support academic excellence, exploration, and discovery
  2. Prepare students for fulfilling careers and a lifetime of leadership
  3. Foster well-being, belonging, and resilience across our community
  4. Strengthen institutional sustainability to ensure the college’s enduring contributions to the world

How did we get from strategic goals to objectives? 
Since February, we have been focused on building out objectives and initiatives to support each of these strategic goals. To guide the creation of objectives and initiatives, the Steering Committee and the President’s Team developed a set of key questions within each goal. Various Smith-led groups, including working groups of faculty, staff, students, and alums, as well as relevant faculty and staff leaders, have been grappling with these key questions and developing objectives and initiatives to respond to each. Working groups focused on those key questions that cut across the entire college and would most benefit from cross-constituency engagement. Please see the next question for current draft objectives.

Goal 1: Inspire and support academic excellence, exploration, and discovery
Key questions:

  1. How will we encourage and support students to receive the full benefits of Smith College’s liberal arts education by embracing academic exploration?
  2. How will we ensure that Smith remains on the forefront of academic scholarship and pedagogy?
  3. How will we invest in emergent areas of inquiry and pedagogy and respond to shifts in student interest?
  4. How will we expand support for student mentorship and research that directly enhance the academic experience?

Goal 2: Prepare students for fulfilling careers and a lifetime of leadership
Key questions:

  1. How will we support students to take advantage of opportunities for leadership and career development, and connect these opportunities with the curriculum?
  2. How will we provide more accessible opportunities for alums and students to support the college community, including volunteering and giving options?
  3. How will we more effectively partner with alums to advance the career growth of its students and recent graduates, and deepen alums’ connection to the college?

Goal 3: Foster wellbeing, belonging, and resilience across our community
Key questions:

  1. How will we reimagine our traditions, structures, practices, and rituals to promote a sense of belonging for everyone in our increasingly diverse community?
  2. How will we promote balance and focus through standards and norms across staff, faculty, and students?
  3. How will we evaluate and prioritize mental health and accessibility support to respond to the highest areas of demand?
  4. How could current physical spaces be reimagined to foster regular positive interactions among staff, faculty, and students?

Goal 4: Strengthen institutional sustainability to ensure the college’s enduring contributions to the world
Key questions:

  1. How can we collectively foster a culture of ethical and courageous discernment that allows us to lay down and consolidate work when we can, and invest our limited energy and resources in our highest priorities?
  2. How can we balance our commitment to financial accessibility for students in the context of future financial challenges?
  3. How will we advance our commitment to act against climate change including and beyond near elimination of fossil fuel utilization on our campus?
  4. How will we sustain our workforce and promote employee engagement in light of increased labor market competition, the shifting nature of work, and other external forces?
  5. How will we continue to leverage technology, including AI, to support strategy?

What are the current draft objectives (as of March 26, 2025)?
Goal 1: Inspire and support academic excellence, exploration, and discovery
Draft objectives:

  • Center academic exploration as a hallmark of Smith’s liberal arts education
  • Enhance faculty support to stay at the forefront of scholarship and teaching and learning
  • Increase opportunities for student research

Goal 2: Prepare students for fulfilling careers and a lifetime of leadership
Draft objectives:

  • Support students to take advantage of opportunities for leadership and career development
  • Strengthen engagement with the alum network to support student career exploration and deepen connection to the college

Goal 3: Foster well-being, belonging, and resilience across our community
Draft objectives:

  • Create a more welcoming and connected community through renewed traditions and practices
  • Create communal well-being through care, physical spaces, and recreation

Goal 4: Strengthen institutional sustainability to ensure the college’s enduring contributions to the world
Draft objectives:

  • Foster a culture of ethical and courageous discernment to direct energy and resources towards the college’s highest priorities
  • Sustain the exceptional faculty and staff who enable Smith’s success
  • Advance our commitment to act against climate change
  • Maintain the academic talent and diversity of our student body and expand on opportunities for all students through a sustained commitment to financial aid
  • Ethically leverage technology to support our strategic goals

Who from Smith is leading the strategic planning process?
The process is being led by Smith’s Strategic Planning Steering Committee. Three working groups made up of faculty, staff, students, and alums are also supporting the development of specific areas of the plan.

What data has informed the strategic planning process?
We are more than halfway through the development of the strategic plan. To date, the Strategic Planning Steering Committee (“Steering Committee”) has considered findings collected from myriad sources, including conversations with hundreds of Smith community members, internal surveys and reports, department and center annual reports and strategic plans, peer college benchmarking data, and interviews with leaders of other colleges and universities. In January, over 4,000 faculty, staff, students, and alums participated in a community survey, which served as another input to the process. The following groups were engaged in specific discussions related to strategic planning:

  • Faculty Council
  • Academic Chairs
  • Alumnae Association Board
  • Committee on Mission and Priorities
  • Senior staff
  • Staff Council
  • House Presidents Association
  • Student Government Association Cabinet
  • Board of Trustees
  • Dean’s Advisory Council
  • Inclusion Council
  • Committee on Sustainability
  • Sherrerd Center Advisory Board
  • Science Center Committee on Diversity
  • Residential Life

What opportunities do I have to make my voice heard in the strategic planning process?
We are grateful to the thousands of Smith community members who have already participated in this process and welcome your continued participation moving forward. Here are some upcoming ways to provide input to the plan:

When will the strategic plan be launched?
Our work to develop initiatives will continue through early-April. In April and May, the Steering Committee, working group co-chairs, and other college leaders will begin building out draft plans for implementation–determining who will do what, by when–in order to accomplish our goals over the next decade. Wellspring will continue to support our team in that effort through May. Over the summer, Smith will continue to refine the plan. The Board of Trustees will meet in October to endorse the final strategic plan.