Jim Smith

Jim Smith is an entrepreneur, speaker, scholar and community advocate.

He is the Managing Member for Digital Network Group, an IT and Management Consulting firm, CEO of Kinetic Potential Scholars, a Talent Development Organization, and an Adjunct Professor in the University of Maryland System teaching Cybersecurity in the graduate school.

Jim has over 20 years of IT and Management consulting experience supporting numerous corporations, government agencies and nonprofits in the areas of strategic planning, outsourcing, global product development, system integration and program turnarounds. His expertise spans the education, communications, technology, healthcare, finance and government sectors with such noteworthy organization as AT&T, Verizon, Geico, Bank of America, Commonwealth of Virginia, Social Security Agency, DC Public Schools, Prince George’s County Public Schools and the Republic of Liberia.   

Jim’s research includes decision support systems for talent development, predictive algorithms for quantifying risk, talent supply chain models applied in a K-12 setting, professional maturity models to reverse engineer career paths and applying financial portfolio theory to youth development.  He is particularly interested in capacity building for nonprofit organizations through the application of information technology. His academic background consists of a BA in Physics from Occidental College, an MS in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from the University of Massachusetts and an MBA from the Wharton School. Jim is a Cybersecurity Advanced Degree Fellow (CADF), certified Project Management Professional (PMP), Certified Scrum Master (CSM) and Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO).

Recent Posts

Optimizing Talent Supply Chains: Stop the Leakage
Jim Smith

Talent Supply Chain, Leakage, Us Chamber of Commerce, Forbes, UMD, Talent Pipeline Management, TPM
Saturday, November 2, 2019 - 16:26
Talent Supply Chain

This post originally appeared on: Us Chamber of Commerce and re-posted on Forbes

Increasingly human resource professionals are applying supply chain theory to the growing misalignment of talent available to meet 21st century workforce needs. There are a number of drivers at the root cause of this trend, one notable driver being the technological evolution that has dramatically changed the skillset required for workforce demand.

Busing Programs...Are They Worth The Trip?
Jim Smith

Education, youth development, public policy, desegregation, busing, Project Concern
Saturday, April 27, 2019 - 23:46
Busing Programs

In 1979, I was chosen to participate in Project Concern, one of many desegregation social experiments implemented during the sweeping idealism of the 1960s. Based in Connecticut, Project Concern was a program that bused minority students living in impoverished inner cities to wealthy communities in the suburbs. From the third to the 12th grade of my education, I was bused nearly 25 miles from the city of Bridgeport, CT to what seemed like a completely different world–the affluent town of Westport, CT. Even today, the disparity between Bridgeport and Westport remains the same; by 1991 Bridgeport was listed as 5th in the nation for cities with the highest homicide rate per capita while Westport remains one of the wealthiest communities in the United States. It was my experience in Project Concern that taught me the true meaning of "the other side of the tracks".