Marcia Smith

Marcia A. Smith joined The Atlantic Philanthropies as Vice President in March 2008. Ms. Smith is based in New York and oversees Atlantic’s programmes on Disadvantaged Children & Youth and Population Health, as well as serving on the foundation’s senior management team.

Prior to joining The Atlantic Philanthropies, Smith was president of Firelight Media, an independent, not-for-profit documentary film production company based in Oakland. Under her leadership, Firelight produced more than 15 hours of award winning, primetime, non-fiction film for broadcast on cable and public television. Among Firelight’s award winning productions are Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple and The Murder of Emmett Till, for which Smith won the 2003 Writers’ Guild Award for best documentary writing and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy. In addition to the film’s numerous awards, Smith is proudest that the U.S. Justice Department credited The Murder of Emmett Till with helping to spur the department to re-open this 50-year old case that was key to launching the civil rights movement.

Prior to Firelight, Smith spent eight years at the Ford Foundation, first as a Program Officer in Rights and Social Justice, where she managed a portfolio on racial justice, women’s rights, and media; then as a Program Officer and, subsequently, Deputy Director, of Governance and Civil Society and Co-chair of the Women’s Program Forum. Earlier she served in senior positions in New York City government.

Educated at Brown University, Smith holds a degree in Media and Social Education from Emerson College, a Master’s Degree in Social Research from Hunter College of the City University of New York, and was a Revson Fellow at Columbia University.