Jessica Smith

Jessica Smith is Relay’s first Chief People Officer. She is a culture and change leader who believes in creating radical spaces of belonging. Jessica spent the last six years at Alliance College-Ready Public Schools, most recently as the Vice President of Employee Relations & Engagement.

In that role, Jessica built Alliance’s first employee relations and engagement team and systems, started the organization’s first DEI working group, and created and led Alliance’s organizational strategy of becoming an anti-racist and pro-Black public charter school network.

Prior to Alliance, Jessica worked for Atlanta Public Schools leading employee relations work and advising management on the handling of employee relations and human resource matters while ensuring compliance with laws, policies, and regulations. Jessica began her career advising senior school system administrators and board members on labor and employment matters. Her experience has allowed Jessica to hone in on her skills of building strong people-centered systems that are grounded in equity and belonging. Jessica earned a B.A. from the University of Miami, and a J.D. from Emory University.