Leadership

HEIDI SMITH
of Nevada
President, 2002-2003 

Heidi Smith was elected NFRW president at the 31st Biennial Convention in San Antonio and assumed the position in January 2002. Recognizing the need to reach out to women from all walks of life, particularly women from nontraditional voting communities, Smith created the Woman to Woman program, the main focus of which was a video and television advertisement that communicated the accessibility and diversity of the NFRW and the GOP. With a heavy emphasis on outreach to Hispanic women, the program also featured a web site and materials in Spanish and a focus on the creation of clubs in Hispanic and other minority communities.

Smith also held the positions of second vice president, treasurer, and chairman of the Caring For America committee and the New Candidate Recruitment program. She also served in many other positions.

Smith joined the Palos Verdes, Calif., club in 1974 prior to moving to Salem, Ore., where she served as president of the Oregon Federation from 1985-86. After moving to Nevada in the mid-1980s, Smith was elected president of the Republican Women of Reno and served as the Nevada Federation's second vice president.

Smith ran for a seat in the Nevada State Assembly in 1994. She has managed numerous campaigns, raised money for candidates, conducted poll work, participated in several Republican conventions, and served as precinct chair and deputy registrar of voters. She also served on the Washoe County (Nev.) Central Committee, the Nevada State Central Committee and the Oregon Republican Party Executive Committee.

In addition to her busy political life, Smith is a business owner, an insurance agent and a genealogy instructor at Truckee Meadows Community College.

Smith has served as a court-appointed special advocate for abused children, as chairman for the Oregon Planning Commission for Marion County (Ore.) and as a board member for the Foundation for Oregon Research in Education. She was association executive for the Northern Nevada Association of Life Underwriters during most of the 1990s.

Smith earned a bachelor's degree in anthropology from Pitzer College. She is married to Stephen S. Smith, CPA, and has six children and seven grandchildren.