- President Trump appointed the Mississippian this week to serve as Assistant Secretary for Early Childhood Education at the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services.
Dr. Laurie Todd-Smith was sworn in Monday as the Assistant Secretary for Early Childhood Education at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), after receiving an appointment from President Donald Trump.
Todd-Smith’s three decades of education experience spans from time on the ground teaching to serving as the head of former Governor Phil Bryant’s education policy team to academic and thinktank work.
She oversaw Bryant’s reading initiatives, including the passage of the Literacy Based Promotion Act. The progress made under her leadership is often credited with Mississippi’s historic reading gains. Todd-Smith also spearheaded the development of Mississippi’s early childhood education policy while serving under Bryant.
More recently, she served as the Director of the Center of Education Opportunity and the Center for the American Child at the America First Policy Institute.
At HHS, Todd-Smith will oversee federal programs and policies aimed at improving access to high-quality education and care in the formative years, along with a budget of approximately $25 billion.
Todd-Smith told Magnolia Tribune she is “deeply honored to step into this role” and emphasized that “every child deserves a strong start. She says she feels “privileged to work alongside so many dedicated advocates, educators, and families to make that a reality.”
Todd-Smith described the task before her as strengthening early learning initiatives, such as Head Start, collaborating with states to enhance child development outcomes, contributing to foster care reform efforts to ensure better support for vulnerable children, and working to address disparities in early education access.
Former Governor Bryant thinks Todd-Smith is uniquely qualified for the role.
“Laurie Todd-Smith was a driving force behind Mississippi’s education turnaround; what we now call the ‘Mississippi Miracle.’ She didn’t just talk about change. She did the work and delivered results that put our kids first,” Bryant told Magnolia Tribune. “She’s a leader who cuts through the bureaucracy and gets things done, and I have no doubt she will bring that same determination and heart to Washington.”
Over the last three years, Todd-Smith’s work with the Center for the American Child centered on efforts to expand the number of states offering universal school choice. Her tenure coincided with twelve states adopting universal choice programs and twenty-two additional states passing some form of school choice expansion.
Her recent work also homed in on advancing foster care reform in the states, online child safety initiatives, including the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), and awareness campaigns addressing the fentanyl crisis in schools.
Todd-Smith was previously appointed by President Trump in 2018 to serve as the Director of the
Women’s Bureau at the U.S. Department of Labor.
Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said in a statement to Magnolia Tribune that:
“Laurie Todd-Smith is an exceptional leader who, as Director of the Center for the American
Child at AFPI, has helped advance children’s well-being and empower parents through impactful
work. She has been a consistent champion of these issues and an America First warrior, building
an impressive body of work that will inspire and equip others to carry forward this mission. I’m
proud to support her work to ensure every child’s potential is realized.”
Todd-Smith is the second Mississippian appointed to a major role in the Trump administration after serving in Bryant’s administration. Drew Snyder, who ran the Mississippi Division of Medicaid under both Bryant and current Governor Tate Reeves, and who also served as Bryant’s policy director for a period, was appointed to run the national Medicaid program earlier this year.
Russ Latino
