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Anthony Smith, Ph.D.

Tony SmithAnthony "Tony" Smith, Ph.D., was named Superintendent of the Oakland Unified School District on May 22, 2009, when the seven-member Oakland Board of Education selected him by unanimous vote. An Oakland resident and parent of students in Oakland Public Schools, Smith is the District’s first permanent, locally-appointed Superintendent since 2003.

A veteran of the Bay Area education reform movement and a champion for equity in schools, Smith’s tenure in District officially began on July 1, 2009. Prior to joining the Oakland Unified School District District, Smith served as Deputy Superintendent for the 56,000-student San Francisco Unified School District from November 2007 through June 2009, earning lavish praise from San Francisco Superintendent Carlos Garcia and the broader community for his work in the areas of innovation, instruction and social justice. Smith’s time in San Francisco followed his days as Superintendent of the Emery Unified School District (EUSD) in Emeryville, California. Smith accepted the top post in Emeryville schools when the Board of Education regained control following State Administration in 2004. Prior to leading Emery Unified, Smith was Director of the Emeryville Citywide Initiative, with particular responsibility for the Math, Science, Technology Initiative (MSTI), a joint project of EUSD, the City of Emeryville, the Emery Ed Fund and the Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools (BayCES). In this role, Smith fostered the development of a local, state and federal agenda promoting greater attention to parent, community and teacher voices as well as the creation and support of high-quality, equitable, small autonomous schools.

From 1997 to 2001, Smith served as Director of the Academy for Excellence, Equity and Leadership in Teaching and as Director of the Transitions Project at BayCES, an educational non-profit that offers coaching and technical assistance to schools and districts as part of an effort to promote equity in education. In these roles, he was responsible for fundraising, management and human resources, curriculum development, training and facilitation, leadership development and coaching and youth engagement for projects related to secondary school and English Learner literacy. He also developed strategies for District-wide interventions and managed relationships between UC Berkeley, six California high schools, BayCES and the Hewlett Foundation.

Prior to joining BayCES, Smith worked as management consultant for Oakland-based Growers Produce and a program evaluator with An Alliance for Action, an effort to ally the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), major North American professional sports leagues and community-based organizations in a project aimed at aiding at-risk youth.

In 1992, Smith received his B.A. in English from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was captain of the football team and Graduate Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach before going on to earn his Master’s and Doctorate Degrees in Division of Language and Literacy from Cal’s Graduate School of Education in 1993 and 2002, respectively.
Last Modified on April 23, 2013