Biography
Joyce E. Smith is Chief Executive Officer of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), an organization of more than 12,000 professionals from around the world dedicated to serving students as they make choices about pursuing postsecondary education.
An admissions expert with more than 32 years of experience, Joyce has served in college admission counseling as a practitioner and manager through her work with professional associations and organizations, including the Association of Independent School Admission Professionals (AISAP), the College Board, ACT, and the Institute for Higher Education Policy.
With a bachelor's of science degree in speech pathology and a master's of science degree in counseling from Kansas State University, Joyce completed additional study in education policy, planning and administration at the University of Maryland-College Park.
In addition to her extensive experience as an administrator, Joyce is a practitioner, having worked in both public and private college admissions at Kansas State University, Amherst College (MA) and Queens College of the City University of New York, where she served as executive director of admissions for undergraduate and graduate admissions, marketing and scholarship services. She also worked for seven years as a program service officer of the Student Search Service and associate director of the Admission Testing Program with the College Board in New York, assisting colleges and universities with marketing and direct mail in support of their recruitment efforts.
Joyce served as NACAC associate executive director and acting executive director before being named NACAC's executive director (now CEO) in February 1997.
In addition to her NACAC inter-association responsibilities, Joyce has served as a member of the Advisory Board for Scholarship America, the Board of Directors of the Association of Independent School Admission Professionals (AISAP), and on numerous other boards. She is a member and the association representative to the Washington Higher Education Secretariat (WHES), a voluntary forum for Chief Executive Officers of national higher education associations coordinated by the American Council on Education.
