Board of Directors | Staff | Founder
Advisory Board | Founding Families | Former Board Members
In the fall of 2007, Rebecca Gershenson Smith, PhD candidate, Upper Fells Point resident, and mother of two, began assembling other like-minded parents to create an organization that would serve as a voice for the growing number of people who were choosing to raise families in downtown Baltimore.
Transplanted to Baltimore for her husband's residency at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in 2004, Rebecca was an active community volunteer, leading many local committees, helping to found the Patterson Park Public Charter School and serving on its board, and facilitating the SEBaltCityKids parent network.
Through this work, Rebecca recognized the need for a single cohesive group representing downtown families' interests, so she decided to form the Downtown Baltimore Family Alliance. She reached out to two other locally active parents—Judy O'Brien and Emily Hiller—to join the effort and become DBFA's first officers. The three divided responsibilities and formed a board of directors. (See DBFA's history for the full story.)
During DBFA's first two years, Rebecca took on many of the key roles in the organization, including defining advocacy priorities; fundraising through grant writing and relationship development; working closely on the 501(c)3 application, bylaws, strategic plan, and budget; developing relationships with community leaders; enhancing the organization's visibility; conceptualizing several of the first events; directing DBFA's many committee chairs; and authoring the mission and vision statements, core values, history, brochure, and web content.
Known for being an analytical passionate perfectionist who is thorough almost to a fault, according to her DBFA colleagues, Rebecca has the unique ability to translate an idea into a tangible outcome. As one of her fellow board members commented, "Rebecca is tireless. She promotes a vision, finds people committed to that vision and able to contribute special skills, and keeps pushing for progress."
A DBFA volunteer turned staff member said it this way: "Rebecca has a way of getting you to do things you never thought you would. She has a smile that makes it very hard to say no to. She's passionate about what she does and expects no less from the people who work with her. Because she truly believes in the organization that she founded, she demands perfection. At the same time, she works just as diligently to ensure for the people who represent her what she does for her city—that we all thrive."
In 2010, Rebecca opted to step down from the DBFA Board of Directors but continues to stay involved as part of the Board Development Committee and as an informal advisor to DBFA's staff. Rebecca intends to be a lifelong member of the organization and looks forward to seeing the fulfillment of DBFA's vision. It is her hope that it will some day be hard to imagine a time when downtown Baltimore was anything but a thriving locus of family life.
Rebecca now has three children—Lilian, Adeline, and Alistair—and currently works part-time as a nonprofit consultant while home with her son. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Brown University and received her doctorate in English Language and Literature from the University of Michigan in 2009. Previously, she worked in publishing for the University of Texas and the University of Michigan Press.