Edward M. Smith, Ph.D.

Undergraduate and Graduate professor in the School of Business.

Dr. Ed Smith has focused much of his career on mentoring leaders to understand underlying organizational culture, helping them create an appropriate transition strategy and get on the right path to achieve their objectives. With more than 25 years of background in commercial banking and with church and non-profit organizations, he is an expert at managing organizational change.

Prior to serving in leadership capacities at Williamson College, Ed was the founder of Oxygen for Leaders, an executive coaching and consultancy organization. He holds an M.B.A. from the University of Kentucky and a Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership from Regent University.

His career experience and education have been excellent preparation for leading a diverse student body that engages in rigorous academic study from a distinctively Christian worldview perspective.

An avid mountaineer, Ed has coordinated and led a leadership development trek that reached base camp of Mt. Everest in 2005 and 2008. At nearly 18,000 ft. in altitude, Everest Base Camp is the staging area for climbers attempting to summit Mt. Everest, the world’s highest peak.

He and his wife, Kay DeKalb Smith, live in Franklin, Tennessee. They have two married daughters and five grandchildren.