Regina R. Smith is managing director of The Kresge Foundation’s Arts & Culture Program. She leads efforts to identify prospects for national funding opportunities and partnerships in the arts and culture field.

Regina has been with the Foundation since 2008 as a program officer and senior program officer, working to advance the deliberate integration of arts and culture into community development through creative placemaking.

Previously, Regina worked at the Arts & Science Council in Charlotte, N.C., where, as vice president of grants and services, she managed a $12 million grants portfolio. She served as programs and services director at Culture Works in Dayton, Ohio, from 1994 to 1999 and, earlier, managed a nationally recognized program for the Indiana Arts Commission. In 1989, while on a nine-month Arts Administration Fellowship, Regina was in residence with three arts organizations: the Madison Art Center, COMPAS in St. Paul, Minn., and Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs. She began her career as a museum educator at the Cleveland Children’s Museum and the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Regina studied art history at the University of Pittsburgh and received a master’s degree in arts administration from Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C.

Photo: Douglas Schaible