Charlotte J. Smith previously served as the Deputy Director of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) in their Michigan offices in Kalamazoo and Flint. At LISC, Charlotte was responsible for overseeing day-to-day operations, managing staff, budget and grant management, and fundraising. Prior to LISC, she was the Deputy Director for Community Services at the Kalamazoo (MI) County Health and Community Services Department. In that role, her responsibilities included overseeing the agencies and programs that made up the community services section of the county health department, including Health Equity; Maternal and Child Health; Veterans Services; Area Agency on Aging; and the Community Action Agency.

Earlier in her career, she spent 18 years at the State of Michigan’s Office of Children’s Ombudsman (OCO) as investigator, managing supervisor, and gubernatorial appointee as Acting Director. The OCO is a watchdog agency that investigates social workers’ handling of child abuse, foster care, adoption, and juvenile justice cases and recommends policy changes and statutory amendments for the legislature and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services concerning these child and family issues. Charlotte has a law degree from the University of Akron (Ohio) College of Law and a Bachelor of Science degree from Eastern Connecticut State University.