Meet PCRC’s New Board Chair, Michael Smith

We are pleased and thrilled to name Michael Smith as PCRC’s new board chair, and we extend our thanks and gratitude to our outgoing board chair, Jo-Ann Byrne Sockolov. Michael joined the PCRC board two years ago and most recently held the executive board position of secretary. His background in strategic planning and finance helped him drive the board discussion with a focus on fundraising. He is founder and CEO of E&I Advisors, served as Director of Strategy and Business Planning at American Express, was a Global Strategist for Samsung and graduated with an MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business.

Michael is looking forward to solidifying and executing PCRC’s strategic plan based on the Theory of Change concept as board chair. “It's going to make PCRC even more directed than it has been in the past, and it's going to help us be more efficient in how we tackle opportunities but also challenges.” 

Through his work as Planning Commissioner in Redwood City and his position as Palm Park Neighborhood co-chair, Michael became familiar with the value PCRC brings to communities. “There are issues in Redwood City that can be divisive. Those points of disagreement can create difficulty when our city’s leadership is trying to make decisions and move a community forward for the betterment of everyone,” Michael says. “To have an organization, like PCRC who can help grease the wheels of conversation and dialogue, is incredibly powerful; it is not lost on me how important that is.” After meeting PCRC Executive Director Michelle Vilchez at Abundant Life Christian Fellowship, Michael learned more about PCRC and became involved with the organization.

For Michael, serving and giving back to the community is a way of life. His parents were ministers in his hometown of Bridgeport, Connecticut, with a mandate to serve the community in the best way they could. Michael would go with his parents to take meals to the hungry and visit the lonely and sick. Along with his fellow board members, Michael is currently active in the community at the institutional level. He also sits on the boards of the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Activities League and the Filoli Historic House and Garden in Woodside. “My passion is public service, and I’m always looking to make myself useful to my community.”

“I think that PCRC is poised to be a disruptor and contributor in this community-building environment that we are in right now,” says Michael. The pandemic has brought a myriad of social issues to the forefront. These painful inequalities need to be skillfully navigating within communities to be resolved. “I truly think that PCRC has the tools, the skills and the experience to be able to turn conversations that were once stilted, problematic and contentious into conversations that are empathetic and productive. I really believe that, and I am just so excited to be a part of this journey.”