About me
Trista Smith is a veteran who started her career with the US Army as an active-duty soldier where she served as a finance and accounting specialist and on the nuclear, biological and chemical hazards defense advance party team during field missions. After leaving the army she studied electrical engineering at Tuskegee University and eventually became a certified career and technical education teacher in pre-engineering.
Trista’s manufacturing career spanned over 20 years at top tier companies. She worked as a plant automation engineer at Ford Motor Company, Pilkington Automotive North America, Elkay Manufacturing, and Central Steel & Wire Company. She also worked as an automated machine controls engineer at Grantek Systems Integration before transitioning her career into the workforce development arena. While teaching in Chicago Public Schools as a high school Pre-Engineering teacher, she worked with the Arthur M. Brazier Foundation to design and launch Building Self Determination Industries L3C (BSD). BSD was a grassroots endeavor that combined a green plastic processing factory with a workforce training program on the southside of Chicago. BSD’s training included in class and on the job hands-on learning curriculum using the plant floor automation. Trista also created this talent pipeline for advanced manufacturing in demand occupations. As a measure of sustainability, the training center launched a green plastic production process where goods were sold in the open market to buffer operation expenditures.
During COVID the training center shut down, so Trista transitioned into a consulting role where she worked with Chicago Women In Trades to manage their ComEd sponsored construction training program. For two years she taught courses online for both programs and coordinated on job training workshops so that her students would continue to have opportunities with skill building hands-on learning activities. After the Covid crisis was under control, Trista joined the Illinois Manufacturing Excellence Council (IMEC) as a Technical Specialist tasked with launching a career pathways service. There she was responsible for providing advanced manufacturing technical training solutions and US Department of Labor registered apprenticeship program management.
As a person whose passion is to make STEM accessible, she serves on three boards: AeroStars (Chicago IL, US), the Susanna Lankai Debrah Educational Foundation (Accra, Ghana) and the Gary Eastside Community Development Corporation (Gary IN, US). These organizations champion youth education, STEM career exploration and workforce development. She also participates as a thought leader with other innovators who are creating a roadmap that will extend STEM experiences for youth through the HUD STEM Innovations Network and the HBCU Resource Center. Her pedagogy is Application Enhances Knowledge because she believes that hands on learning imprints practical knowledge beyond rudimentary study.
