Dana M. Smith

Named one of Maryland’s Top 100 Women by The Daily Record for her professional achievement, community leadership, and mentoring, Dana understands the importance of performance and perseverance. Dana has developed Board members and executives to manage change, improve performance, and increase profitability.

Dana’s extensive corporate experience and empathy provide her with multiple lenses to appreciate and support her clients’ aspirations. She helps leaders sharpen their own resilience and agility by bringing her deep listening skills and rich business background to the coaching relationship. Dana has seen companies from the perspective of operating businesses and private equity/venture capital as well as throughout full economic cycles. She has also acquired new businesses, liquidated a company, and sold two publicly traded organizations in back-to-back transactions.

Since 2006, Dana has led HR and other functions for publicly traded companies (CapitalSource, American Capital, and Hannon Armstrong), focusing on advancing culture, strategy, and organizational development. Additionally, she led human resources at subsidiaries of Constellation Energy and Sylvan Learning Systems and worked in various positions domestically and overseas for Citicorp earlier in her career.

Dana is serving her third term on the Board of Directors of The Y in Central Maryland as a member of its Executive Committee and Chair of its Nominating and Governance Committee. In 2021, she led a Board Development project for theatreWashington, evolving it to an antiracist and anti-oppressive organization, and now sits on its full Board. Dana has been featured in or contributed to Smart CEO Magazine, Employee Benefits News, The Washington Post, and Washington Business Journal.

Dana holds a Master of Science in Organizational Counseling from Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She completed CTI’s Professional Coach Training Program and also received an Executive Coaching Certificate from Wharton Executive Education. She is certified to administer the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument, Center for Creative Leadership Benchmarks 360 Assessments, Hogan Leadership Forecast Series, Hermann Brain Dominance Instrument, Deeper Signals Core Drivers Diagnostic, AIIR’s Coaching Mindset Index, AIIR’s Team Effectiveness Survey, and AIIR’s Dynamics 360. Dana is recognized as a Senior Professional in HR (SPHR) by the HR Certification Institute and Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP) by the Society for Human Resource Management.