Christina B. Smith (furnished photo)

Please meet and welcome Christina B. Smith, the new Equity, Justice, and Inclusion Consultant for the Council. Christina grew up in Bridgeport, Connecticut and moved back there in 2013 because she wanted to be part of her hometown’s revitalization. In 2016 she became Executive Director of Groundwork Bridgeport, whose mission is to beautify and revitalize Bridgeport while providing opportunities for local youth to learn and engage with their communities.

Christina has a B.A. in Economics from Princeton, an M.A. in Historical and Sustainable Architecture from New York University, and an M.Sc. in Urban Regeneration from University College London, Bartlett School of Planning, where she focused on housing.

She brings wide-ranging work experience to the Council, from her decade working in finance, to serving on Bridgeport City Council and numerous nonprofit boards, to doing equity coaching for municipalities through Sustainable CT.

Christina also has a broad array of interests outside of work, from learning new languages, to studying nutrition and human anatomy and physiology, to traveling, to creating art and dancing.

How would you describe your approach to equity coaching?

My approach to equity coaching is to work with others to connect to our common humanity—to focus on common ground, empathy, and compassion.

What do you look forward to about working with the Council?

I look forward to being able to make a difference for not just a local initiative but one that stretches across the state.

What are your current free-time passions?

I don’t seem to have much free time these days but generally I love spending time learning new things, mostly through reading books from the library.

Where do you hope to travel to next?

I’m not sure where I plan to travel next but I have open invites from friends in the Canary Islands in Spain as well as friends on Sanibel Island in Florida, so likely I will be traveling to one of those warm places.

What else would you like folks to know about you?

French fries are my happy food … but everything in moderation. 🙂