Participants

Diana Rothe-Smith

Executive Director, National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (National VOAD)

National VOAD is the forum where organizations share knowledge and resources throughout the disaster cycle—preparation, response, and recovery—to help disaster survivors and their communities. Ms. Rothe-Smith’s organizational goals are to build the infrastructure of the national office to better serve the needs of the state affiliates and national members while meeting the increasing demands on all disaster-focused voluntary agencies.

Prior to her role as executive director, Ms. Rothe-Smith worked with volunteers in community-based programming. She worked in event management for several years and had the opportunity to work with the staff and volunteers of international sporting events such as the 1996, 2000, and 2002 Olympic Games and the 2001 Special Olympics World Winter Games. She also served as a volunteer manager and disaster planner for community-based organizations in greater Atlanta and the National Capital Region. In her previous role as director of disaster initiatives for the Points of Light Foundation, she worked with volunteer centers to support their efforts in unaffiliated volunteer management planning.

Ms. Rothe-Smith has a graduate certificate in emergency management and organizational continuity from Boston University and an executive certificate in nonprofit leadership from the Center for Social Leadership.