PRINCIPAL & FOUNDER
“Through my work at Mountain Time Development, I pursue my passion for advancing best practices in international development, foreign policy and national security.”
Barbara Smith has over 20 years of experience in international development and is a subject matter expert in democracy, human rights, and governance with significant experience designing and implementing programs in conflict-prone countries. She has had direct and substantial involvement in policy development and strategic planning within the U.S. government, the nongovernmental community, and international organizations.
Ms. Smith has proven leadership and management skills. Notably, she served as a Director at the National Security Council for Afghanistan and Pakistan in the White House, where, in addition to other duties, she served as the White House Representative on a high-level visit to Afghanistan. Additionally, Ms. Smith has held a number of positions with the US Agency for International Development (USAID), including a senior executive service appointment as Deputy Assistant Administrator for Policy, Planning, and Learning. In this role, Ms. Smith represented the US government at international negotiations and in international fora at the senior leadership level, including: the US-Korea-Japan Trilateral, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA)-USAID bilateral, and as Head of Delegation to the United Nations Development Cooperation Forum (UNDCF). As Deputy Coordinator for the Middle East Transition Response Team, Ms. Smith helped lead USAID’s regional response to the Arab Spring by overseeing, coordinating, and working with technical and regional staff to develop policy proposals and programmatic responses to events in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and Syria.
She has also held senior positions with various organizations outside of government, including as Spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Bosnia-Herzegovina, as Afghanistan Deputy Country Representative, and as Senior Director in Washington for the Asia Foundation. Ms. Smith has also traveled for work to Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea, India, Sri Lanka, Yemen, Serbia, Northern Macedonia and Montenegro.
In addition to the work she does with Mountain Time Development, Ms. Smith has advised the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) as a Senior Associate (Non-Resident) on civil society engagement. She completed both fieldwork and remote interview-based research, producing several recently published studies on closing space for civil society. Ms. Smith is an advisor at the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines. Previously, she served as an Affiliate Faculty member at Regis University in Denver, and a Practitioner-in- Residence/Adjunct Faculty at Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver.
Ms. Smith received a B.A. in government from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.A. in political science from Texas State University.