ITHACA/SYRACUSE, New York—Today, the Onondaga and Tompkins County Women’s Opportunity Center (WOC) announced that a New Executive Director, Jan Bridgeford-Smith will be starting as head of the organization on March 29, 2021. Bridgeford-Smith will be serving as the Executive Director for both the Syracuse and Ithaca locations. The WOC is a non-profit organization that offers free programs and services to advance women’s success in the workplace by providing employability skill training.

“When I saw the position was open, it just seemed right to apply—it was like coming full circle,” said Jan Bridgeford-Smith, Executive Director of the Women’s Opportunity Center. “When I first moved to Ithaca, I was active for years in advocating for legislation and services important to women; and I couldn’t imagine a better way to honor the spirit of all the women I’d known who had inspired and supported me my entire life. The Women’s Opportunity Center is an organization laser-focused on empowering women—still an urgent piece of unfinished business. I’m honored and excited to be joining the agency.”

A native of Washington, D.C., Bridgeford-Smith was raised by her single mother, who worked full-time as a secretary, and took college classes at night. Bridgeford-Smith went on to get an undergraduate degree in education from the University of Maryland. After two years of teaching special education in a small, rural, southern Maryland school, she moved to the Ithaca area.

In Ithaca, she completed a graduate degree in counselor education with a concentration in organizational management from Syracuse University. Bridgeford-Smith held executive management positions with the Tompkins County Mental Health Association, H.O.M.E.S., Inc. and Family & Children’s Services of Ithaca. She was a founding member and co-coordinator of the local chapter of the National Organization for Women, and served on the boards of Rape Crisis and The Task Force for Battered Women, organizations that eventually joined forces to form the Advocacy Center.