Smith set to speak at GCC Commencement

IRONWOOD — Gogebic Community College is pleased to announce Dr. Randy Smith, current President of the Rural Community College Alliance, will be the graduation speaker for the 82nd commencement ceremony Friday, May 6, at 6:30 p.m. held in the Lindquist Student and Conference Center gymnasium.

Smith has been involved in higher education for over twenty-two years. He holds a Ph.D. in higher education leadership, Master of Science in emergency health services administration and a bachelor’s degree in political science. He also completed the Educators’ Leadership Academy at the University of Central Oklahoma.

His true passion is helping colleges retain students to completion and has developed training programs to assist colleges in all aspects of enrollment management. This includes a special program assisting tribal colleges with Native American Male student retention.

Smith is a regular presenter at state and national conferences on the topics of leadership in higher education, student recruitment and retention at two-year colleges, and workforce and economic development in rural communities. He has testified in front of committees of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate as an expert on issues regarding community colleges. He was an invited participant to the White House Summit on Community Colleges. He served as a member of the 21st Century Community College Commission that was charged with developing a long-term strategic plan for community colleges nationally. He also facilitated the first ever Memorandum of Understanding between a higher education organization and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Recently, he facilitated the inclusion of rural community, technical and tribal colleges in the 2014 Farm Bill, the first time rural colleges have been specifically included in federal legislation. Smith received a three-year appointment from the Obama Administration to the America’s College Promise Advisory Board.

Smith serves on dissertation committees and enjoys helping graduate students do research on community colleges and enrollment management and leadership. He serves on the program advisory committee for the Mississippi State University Ph.D. program in Community College Leadership and the University of Texas program advisory committee for the Ph.D. program in Higher Education Leadership.

Smith enjoys serving in his community and has held several positions including board chairman for a rural county hospital district, volunteer fire fighter and paramedic, member of a municipal police commission, boy scout troop committee chairman, and board member for the Southwest Oklahoma Chapter of the American Red Cross. He is a certified law enforcement officer and is an active reserve deputy sheriff in Hughes County Oklahoma. He served as a judge for the Miss Rodeo America Pageant in Las Vegas in 2013 and he currently coaches rodeo queens and contestants from across the Nation. His daughter, Emily, was a 2014 Miss Rodeo Oklahoma State Titleholder. 

He and his family operate a cow/calf operation near Holdenville, Oklahoma. His wife, Tricia, is a music teacher for the Holdenville, Okla. public schools. Smith is an enrolled member of the Choctaw Tribe of Oklahoma. He enjoys rodeo, ranching, working with horses, playing sports and all outdoor activities.

— Tom Stankard