Denia B. Smith 

Denia B. Smith is the CEO of She Shall Speak, a podcast and empowerment community dedicated to empowering Black girls to pursue civic service, entrepreneurship, and social justice. Since its creation in February 2022, She Shall Speak has garnered a global audience spanning 22 US States and 15 countries. Denia aspires to turn She Shall Speak into a nonprofit organization providing leadership development workshops, networking opportunities, and scholarships to further cultivate Black girls’ leadership skills.  

Smith is a freshman at American University double majoring in Political Science and Justice & Law with a certificate in Advanced Leadership Studies. She is also a nationally recognized activist passionate about racial and gender equity. Her leadership roles include serving as a Teen Advisor to the United Nation Foundation’s Girl Up Campaign, a Youth Advisor on the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Making Caring Common Youth Advisory Board, co-founder of the POC Advocacy, and researcher at the African American Policy Forum.  

Smith is a three-year alumna of Black Girls Lead! hosted by BLACK GIRLS ROCK!®, Conversationalist Disruptor, Disney Dreamer, New Jersey Rising Scholar, recipient of the Princeton Prize in Race Relation’s Certificate of Accomplishment, member of the Girls Leading Our World (GLOW) Global Cohort and a GLOW Global Fellow with Women Empowering Nations and Cantu Beauty. In 2022, Smith was named a Write Her Future Scholar and presented a $10,000 scholarship from the NAACP and Lancôme. 

”As a visionary leader, I seek to empower generations of girls to build a better world. ”