Nancy Smith

Nancy Smith (she/her) is the Executive Director of Activating Change – a national non-profit that spun-off from the Vera Institute of Justice in 2022. She led the spin-off process and the founding of Activating Change. Before leading the work of Activating Change, she served as the Director of the Center on Victimization and Safety at the Vera Institute of Justice from 2004 to 2022.

Under her leadership, the Center’s work to increase survivors with disabilities and Deaf survivors’ access to victim services grew substantially. She fostered relationships with Deaf leaders in survivor advocacy and, together, they launched the first of its kind national training program for victim services delivered in American Sign Language. She also worked closely with 7 culturally specific organization to launch and co-directed a $10 million program to build the capacity of the crime victim’s field to serve crime survivors from marginalized communities. Nancy was responsible for the development of an online assessment tool to measure organizational capacity to serve survivors with disabilities and Deaf survivors using performance indicators. She also worked closely with Deaf advocates to create a five-year plan to expand “for Deaf, by Deaf” anti-violence services nationwide and to design a national interpreter service that provides free American Sign Language interpretation services to victim service providers nationwide.

Nancy has been featured widely in conversations and trainings on centering people with disabilities and Deaf people in justice movements. She has authored numerous reports on serving survivors with disabilities and Deaf survivors, including Forging New Collaborations: A Guide for Rape Crisis, Domestic Violence, Disability Organizations; Sexual Abuse of Children with Disabilities: A National Snapshot, and Culture, Language, and Access: Key Considerations for Serving Deaf Survivors.

Nancy has a bachelor’s degree in criminology and women’s studies and a master’s degree in women’s studies with a concentration in feminist policy studies from the Ohio State University. She is a runner, a dog-lover, and an aspiring pizza chef.