Rev. Dr. Susan K. Smith, senior pastor of Advent United Church of Christ in Columbus, Ohio, is a 1986 graduate of Yale Divinity School.

She received her BA in English Literature from Occidental College and her D. Min. from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio.

A former reporter, Rev. Smith worked for newspapers in Baltimore and Texas before entering seminary. She also served as an associate producer for WJZ News, as an on-air news reporter for WEAA, the radio station affiliated with Morgan State University in Baltimore, and as a talk show host for “Columbus Today,” a locally heard radio program in Columbus, and as an on-air political commentator, for a news magazine television program, also produced in Columbus.

Since becoming pastor of Advent United Church of Christ, the church's membership has increased from five members to about 300. In addition to outreach ministries to the city's poor, Rev. Smith's ministry has concentrated on empowering urban youth through an annual summer arts program, which uses the arts to instill confidence in those youth who participate. Through arts immersion and concentration as well as on reading, writing and math, the camp has been successful in helping participating youth to perform better academically during the school year.

Rev. Smith has also served (and serves still) as minister of music at her church, producing what some have called a “professional choir” which, in addition to singing in Africa, has sung for professional productions including a promotional performance of “The Lion King,” “The Chocolate Nutcracker,” and with country singer Lyle Lovett.

Rev. Smith is a Co-President of BREAD, (Building Responsibility, Equity and Dignity), a multi-racial, multi-ethnic social justice organization comprised of over 50 different religious denominations in the city of Columbus. That organization was recently instrumental in getting the Ohio Legislature to sign into law a measure which prevents pay day lenders from charging its clients exorbitant interest rates.

She was recently invited to be a participant in the Oxford Roundtable, an event held at Oxford University in England, where she presented a paper on the tension in America between the United States Constitution and the Holy Bible.

She is a former member of the Board of Trustees of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, Inc. (SDPC), a social justice ministry which seeks to empower churches and ministers in urban settings to deal with the problems they face through training, resource development and acquisition, and changing of public policy. When the SDPC held hearings in Washington, D.C., Houston and New Orleans, after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Rev. Smith served as lead commissioner. Those hearings resulted in a published report entitled, “The Breach.”

Rev. Smith is now forming a private, not-for-profit organization, Susan K. Smith Ministries, aimed at empowering urban youth all over the United States. Her first project is to get brand new books into public schools in urban and rural America; the first city being targeted is New Orleans, La.

She is the author of four books, “Carla and Annie,” “From Calvary to Victory,” “Forgive WHO?” and, recently released, “Crazy Faith: Ordinary People; Extraordinary Lives.”

She is the mother of two adult children, Charlie and Caroline.

Annual Gathering Keynote Speaker

Rev. Dr. Susan Smith

Senior Pastor

Advent UCC, Columbus