Executive Director

Lo Smith serves as the Executive Director of the Baltimore Digital Equity Coalition, where they lead efforts to connect community members, and organizations and strive for a shared vision of low-cost, high-speed internet access, digital skills education, and appropriate digital devices available to all Baltimoreans.  

 

Before joining BDEC, Lo began their work in Baltimore County Public Libraries as a generalist librarian and quickly identified technology skills acquisition, internet, and device access as huge barriers to the quality of life for their library patrons. From there, they followed this common thread to the Enoch Pratt Free Library as a fellow with the Media Democracy Fund’s Public Interest Technology Fellowship, exploring digital inclusion programming and evangelizing the concepts of digital equity and inclusion across Baltimore City.

 

After completing their Masters of Library Science with Simmons University in 2019, they developed the role of, and became the first Coordinator of Digital Equity with the Enoch Pratt Free Library, leading the digital rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, following the founding of BDEC, they saw Baltimore’s digital inclusion future blossoming, and joined the National Digital Inclusion Alliance as a Senior Programs Manager, cultivating digital inclusion in the US states, territories, and native nations. Most recently, they turned their focus back to Baltimore, serving as a faculty librarian with the University of Baltimore.