Patricia L. Smith is President and CEO of The Funders Network (TFN), where she drives TFN’s organizational and operational initiatives and systems and provides oversight and direction to its funder working groups and grant and fellowship programs. She also serves as program lead for TFN’s Inclusive Economies working group, which applies a three-part focus—race, place and prosperity—to economic growth and development.

Pat is formerly a senior policy advisor for the Reinvestment Fund, a national leader working to revitalize low-income communities through the strategic and innovative use of capital, data and partnerships. She led the Reinvestment Fund’s efforts to improve access to healthier foods in underserved urban and rural communities, and was instrumental in expanding fresh food finance across the industry of community development finance institutions, helping secure over $243 million in federal funding for that work. Prior to joining the Reinvestment Fund, Pat directed the City of Philadelphia’s Neighborhood Transformation Initiative (NTI), a $295 million public-private partnership to stimulate investment in Philadelphia neighborhoods. NTI contributed to a paradigm shift in urban redevelopment policy and resource allocation by creating a data-driven framework for assessing opportunities in distressed urban markets.

Pat is a current member of the Association of Black Foundation Executives (ABFE), and serves on the technical advisory committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s national initiative, Aligning Systems for Health, led by the Georgia Health Policy Center.