Inspire Women's Luncheon

Join women of Lumpkin County at the November Inspire Luncheon with guest speaker Gaye Smith, Executive Director, Georgia Family Connection Partnership.

Date & Time:
Friday, November 8th
11:30 am - 1:00 pm
Lunch will be served promptly at 11:50 pm​

Location:
Montaluce Winery & Restaurant
501 Hightower Church Road, Dahlonega
Please note that valet parking will be unavailable. Please park in the lower lot.

Admission:
$25 per person

Agenda:
11:30 am    Arrival & Mingling
12:00 pm    Welcome & Lunch
1:00 pm      Adjourn

Gaye Smith Bio:
 
Born, raised, and educated in Georgia, Gaye Smith views her mission of improving conditions for children, families, and communities as a personal responsibility. She considers leaving Georgia a better place than she found it as a debt she’s repaying to the state that gave her and her family so much.
Gaye was appointed executive director of Georgia Family Connection Partnership (GaFCP) in 2001 after serving as president/CEO of Parent and Child Development Services Inc., in Chatham and Effingham counties. While in Savannah she was a consultant for the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Making Connections Initiative and served as interim executive director for the Chatham-Savannah Youth Futures Authority, a community-based collaborative organization, which later joined the Georgia Family Connection statewide network.
 
Under Gaye’s leadership

• The Annie E. Casey Foundation designates GaFCP as Georgia’s KIDS COUNT grantee.
• The Brookings Institution presents GaFCP with an international Innovation Award for programs that effectively use information to drive change in their communities.
• American Journal of Community Psychology publishes the GaFCP evaluation team’s studies.

Always looking for new ways to improve our disciplined model of collaboration, Gaye led GaFCP on a statewide listening tour in 2011. Representatives from GaFCP visited Collaboratives in all 159 counties to tap into their wisdom and local perspective before restructuring our technical assistance, resources, and identity.
Gaye regularly educates leaders, legislators, investors, and practitioners on the value of collaboration in driving community improvement, the significance of measuring and communicating results, and effective techniques for engaging partners.
The University of Georgia Graduate School presented Gaye with the Alumni of Distinction Award on October 19, 2017.
The American Society for Public Administration named Gaye Public Administrator of the Year in 2010, and in 2009, Grantmakers for Children and Youth invited her to Washington D.C. to participate on a panel before a group of national foundations. She presented the state and community perspective on effective ways to support communities and nonprofits in cooperation with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
She received the Georgia General Assembly’s Legislative Services Award for her work on behalf of children, families, and communities in 2008.
A native of Athens and a die-hard Dawg, Gaye received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from North Georgia College and State University, Dahlonega, and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Georgia. She began her career in social services with the United Way of the Coastal Empire, where she was vice president of Planning and Allocations.