Dr. Del Smith has an extensive background spanning healthcare, IT, higher education, and business, which he harnesses to champion health equity. He is the Co-Founder and CEO of Acclinate, a company integrating community-building and applied AI to enable historically marginalized communities to make informed health decisions about clinical trial participation. Before Acclinate's inception, Dr. Smith dedicated 14 years to higher education, primarily as a business professor, culminating as an HBCU business school dean. He also brings experience from notable healthcare companies such as McKesson and Memorial Hermann Health System. His research on the success factors of minority-owned businesses has been recognized and featured in esteemed journals like the Journal of Business Research and the Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship. A U.S. Army veteran, Dr. Smith holds a Ph.D. in Business from the University of Alabama.