William Y. Smith is the Executive Assistant to the President for Institutional Equity at Ohio University. He received Juris Doctor, Master of Urban Planning, and Bachelor of Finance degrees from the University of Illinois. He is a Vietnam Veteran who has held a variety of positions with the Champaign County Urban League, the Proctor and Gamble Company, and the Illinois Department of Mental Health. He has held academic appointments as an Assistant Professor of Urban Affairs at Vanderbilt University and Director of the Urban Affairs Institute at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. Prior to his 1978 appointment at Ohio University, he was the Managing Director of the Illinois Office of Minority Business Enterprise where he instituted field offices in Chicago, Springfield, East St. Louis, and Champaign, Illinois. He has served as a consultant and a volunteer on numerous university and community committee and boards dealing with issues of equity access to health systems, affirmative action, and small business development. He is in his fifth decade of
personal and professional commitment to building a just society by teaching and fostering the understanding and value of diversity.

Source: Carol Lewis Papers