Mission
To increase the number of Native American women in the STEM fields.
About Us
Based in Chicago, the Caroline and Ora Smith Foundation is a 501(C)(3) organization that promotes, sponsors, supports, and trains Native American girls and women around the country in the STEM fields in programs that are evidence-based, cultural appropriate and supported by the community and tailored to what works best in each specific community.
The organization is named for our founder’s mother and grandmother, respectively. Caroline Smith was a gifted student who graduated high school at the age of 16, but grew up in an environment where boys went to college, as did her three brothers, but girls did not. Ora Mae Smith nee Pallone was Native American and born in 1905 in Westville, Oklahoma. She grew up in a family with sixteen children, only ten of whom lived above the age of three. Ora also grew up in a time when she was expected to just go to school through eighth grade. But it never stopped her: she had strength, perseverance, and determination.
Our work focuses on, but not limited to, grade school, middle school, junior high school, college, and graduate programs.
We track progress and provide measurable outcomes that can be replicated in other sites.
The goal is to increase the number of Native American women in the STEM fields.
Our History
The Foundation was started by Mary Smith, an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation and the former chief executive of the Indian Health Service, which is the $6 billion agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services responsible for providing federal health services to over 2 million American Indians and Alaska Natives across the country. Mary also serves as the national secretary of the American Bar Association and is a past president of the National Native American Bar Association. She was also previously responsible for Native American policy in the White House. Her undergraduate degree is in mathematics and computer science, and she worked as a systems programmer prior to attending law school at the University of Chicago.
