About Dr. Taiesha Smith

Dr. Taiesha Smith is a scholar-practitioner, educator, and higher education strategist with experience across K-12 education, teacher preparation, student success, academic program management, institutional partnerships, and retention-focused initiatives.

Her work is grounded in one central belief: student success does not happen by accident. It requires intentional systems, informed educators, strong collaboration, and a clear understanding of the students being served.

As the founder of The Educators’ Roundtable, Dr. Smith supports institutions, educators, and programs seeking to improve student persistence, strengthen educational pathways, and build more responsive learning environments. Her consulting work focuses on student success and retention strategy, bridge program design, first-year experience support, educator development, and institutional planning.

Dr. Smith has led work in quality enhancement planning, retention strategy, campus-wide student success initiatives, data-informed intervention models, educator development, and academic program support. Her experience includes designing and strengthening systems that help students transition, persist, and complete their academic goals.

Her professional background allows her to connect K-12 preparation, college readiness, teacher development, and higher education persistence in a practical and meaningful way. She brings a systems-level approach to helping educational organizations identify gaps, strengthen support structures, and design strategies that better serve students.

Dr. Smith’s areas of focus include African American Studies, retention and persistence, teacher education, curriculum and instruction, experiential learning, and equity-focused educational leadership. She continues to center her work on educational access, institutional responsibility, and the success of historically underserved students.

Through The Educators’ Roundtable, Dr. Smith helps schools, colleges, universities, and educational organizations move from good intentions to structured action. Her work is especially focused on helping institutions build systems that support students before they are in crisis, connect academic and non-academic supports, and create meaningful pathways for students to persist, belong, and succeed.