Ralph Smith is senior vice president of the Annie E. Casey Foundation and managing director of the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, a national effort to combat the low reading proficiency among low-income children. Smith also led the foundation's Making Connections initiative to improve outcomes for children by strengthening families and neighborhoods. A law professor at the University of Pennsylvania for two decades, Smith is a nationally recognized legal scholar and attorney. He was chief of staff and chief operating officer for the School District of Philadelphia and a senior advisor to former Philadelphia Mayor Wilson Goode on children and family policy. As the founding director of the National Center on Fathers and Families and the Philadelphia Children's Network, Smith helped launch and lead the "responsible fatherhood" movement. Smith serves on numerous foundations and initiatives and received the Jane Addams Distinguished Leadership Award from the United Neighborhood Centers of America 2010.

Panel:
Early Childhood Education: Jump-Start to Literacy

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