Nathaniel Smith is the founder and Chief Equity Officer of the Atlanta-based Partnership for Southern Equity. A child of Southern Freedom Movement Activists, Smith works to advance racial equity through an equity agenda, which advances just outcomes that are sensitive to the needs and circumstances of communities – erasing barriers to success and creating the conditions that enable just and fair inclusion into a society in which all people can participate, prosper and reach their full potential.
Under Smith’s leadership, PSE created the South’s first equity-mapping tool, the Metro Atlanta Equity Atlas and led a coalition of diverse stakeholders to support a $13 million transit referendum that expanded MARTA into a new county for the first time in 45 years. Through its COVID-19 Rapid Relief Fund, PSE distributed more than $500,000 to more than 30 organizations because of the initial investment of the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta and the United Way of Greater Atlanta.
Smith’s leadership was instrumental in partnering with several organizations to create the Justice40Accelerator, designed to provide organizations with innovative front-line community climate projects the assistance to better position them to pursue and win federal funding.
Smith’s accomplishments include numerous awards and distinctions, including being named an inaugural recipient of Bank of America’s Neighborhood Builders: Racial Equality award, and being named co-chair of the Drawdown Georgia Leadership Council, which addresses climate change in Georgia through the intersection of climate and equity.
Learn more about the National Health Equity Advisory Board or Partnership for Southern Equity
