Katherine W. Smith

About Katherine W. Smith

I’ve spent more than 25 years working on the problem I believe matters most: education as the engine of economic mobility, public safety, and a society that actually works for everyone.Today I’m CEO of Neuhaus Education Center — a 46-year-old Houston institution that has been doing science of reading long before it was ever called science of reading. In response to a 600% statewide surge in dyslexia identification and a critical shortage of trained therapists, we launched The Neuhaus Clinic: a direct pathway to attack long wait lists and rapidly credential the next generation of dyslexia specialists. Before Neuhaus, I led the Houston ISD Foundation through a pivotal chapter — establishing its operational independence, substantially strengthening its financial position, and helping the organization and its donors navigate state intervention in HISD.Earlier in my career, I raised $2M+ to launch the nation’s first mobile micro-school, then helped completely redesign it when success brought an unexpected test: the school’s commitment to personalization attracted increasing numbers of kids with specialized learning needs — students other schools might have quietly turned away. Rather than protect our performance metrics, we chose to double down, redesigning the model around the belief that disability and difference don’t have to mean underperformance. That redesign moved the district from an F to a C rating in a single year.The thread across all of it isn’t a single cause — it’s a conviction: that literacy is the foundation, and education is the long game. When people can read, they can work, build, and contribute. Literacy isn’t just a classroom outcome. It’s upstream of wages, safety, entrepreneurship, and the kind of shared prosperity that comes when more people have real economic opportunity.I’m drawn to organizations at an inflection point — where the mission is sound but the moment demands more. The job is making tough calls, helping teams navigate the chaos of the external environment bearing down on the mission, and reminding people of the excellence they’re already capable of. I ask hard questions, follow the data, and refuse to let good intentions substitute for results. If the work isn’t moving people forward, it isn’t working — and I’m not interested in protecting systems that have stopped serving their purpose. Substantially improving someone’s life outcomes is hard, unglamorous work. Execution is the real measure. Outcomes over optics. That’s not a methodology. It’s just how I’m wired.

Experience

1. Chief Executive Officer and President

   Neuhaus Education Center

   Apr 2025 — Present · Houston, TX, US

Education

• Rice Business

  Fellowship (REEP), Educational Entrepreneurship

  2012 — 2013

• University of South Alabama

  B.A., Creative Writing

  1999 — 2002

• University of Houston

  Master of Fine Arts - MFA, Creative Writing - Fiction

  2020 — 2025

• The University of Texas at Arlington

  M.Ed, Educational Policy & Leadership

  2010 — 2011