Rhonda M. Smith

Rhonda currently serves as the Executive Director of the California Black Health Network. She previously served as the Executive Director of the Life Serve Youth Foundation and as the Interim Executive Director for Integrative Medicine for the Underserved (IM4US). Prior to this role, Rhonda served as the IM4US Board President-elect. Before her tenure with IM4US, Rhonda was the Consultant/Project Director for the LiveHealthy OC Initiative, a three-year initiative that transformed the model of care of a network of FQHCs from a disease-focused treatment model to a prevention and wellness model to provide a whole person care approach.

Before the LiveHealthy OC Initiative, Rhonda served as the Consultant/Statewide Project Manager for the Susan G. Komen® Circle of Promise California Initiative, an intensive four-year effort to identify evidence-based strategies to decrease the high mortality rate of African American women diagnosed with breast cancer, and address disparities at the system, community, and individual levels.

Rhonda has also consulted on an NIH/NCI funded breast cancer survivorship research study at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center in Miami targeting the diverse population of Black women in the South Florida community. The study focused on evaluating the impact of stress management and wellness education on survivors who were within twelve months of competing treatment. Her responsibilities included marketing, PR, community outreach and recruitment, and facilitating the study’s ten-week health and wellness education program to the control group cohorts.

Prior to her health disparities consulting experience, Rhonda worked in sales, marketing, learning and development consulting, and business management, with companies such as Eli Lilly and DuPont. Rhonda has broad international consulting experience and managed client engagements and projects on 5 continents and in more than 20 countries for companies such as GE, Office Depot, Johnson & Johnson, Bristol Myers Squibb, Glaxo SmithKline, Abbott Laboratories, Novartis, Rolls Royce, and Xerox Corp.

Rhonda earned her MBA in Marketing and Operations Management from the Colgate Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia and her B.S. Degree in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech. Rhonda served the Mission Integration Chair for the American Cancer Society 2012 Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk and a member of the Baptist Health South Florida Breast Center’s Patient and Family Advisory Council. Rhonda is a Leadership Charlotte alumnus, Past-Chair of the Board of The Women’s Fund of Miami-Dade, and a past CEO Forum member of The Commonwealth Institute South Florida. Rhonda served on the 2007 NFL Super Bowl Special Events Committee, and in 2006 was named one of South Florida’s “25 Most Prominent and Influential African-American Women” by Success South Florida Magazine.