Arctic Visiting Speakers Series | Speakers Bureau

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--- SPEAKER BY NAME --- ALIA, Valerie BASKIN, Leonid BELOOUSSOVA, Ekaterina BILLSON, Janet Mancini BRET-HARTE, Syndonia BROADBENT, Noel D. BURNS, William CAHILL, Charles CLINE, Don COCHRAN, Patricia CORELL, Robert CRATE, Susan A. CRUMP, John DARBY, Dennis DE VROEDE, Jan DOMBROWSKI, Kirk FORMAN, Steven FEELY, Richard GLENN, Richard GORDON. Bryan GRADINGER, Rolf GRANTZ, Arthur GRIKUROV, Garrik E. HELENIAK, Timothy HUNTINGTON, Henry HUNTINGTON, Orville HUSKEY, Lee IL'INSKII, Vladimir V. IPELLIE, Alootook IRNIQ, Peter T. KELLER, Andrew M. KELLY, Brendan P. KLEIN, David R. KOIVUROVA, Timo KOKORIS, Moki KOZLOV, Mikhail LOBO, Susan LYBERTH, Angaangaq MACNAB, Ron MCGHEE, Robert MCROY, C. Peter MUKASA, Samuel B. MERCULIEFF, Larry OKKONEN, Steve OSGOOD DANA, Kathleen PACI, Christopher PAPUSHA, Alexander Nickolaevich POMEROY, John PUNGOWIYI, Caleb PUTILOV, Arcady A. RINNE, Arto ROBINSON, David A. ROE, Stephen SCHNEIDER, William SFORMO, Todd SMITH, Frank TAPE, Ken WENDLING, Neesha WILSON, Elana WOHLFORTH, Charles WOO, Ming-ko YANG, Daqing ZHANG, Tingjun ZARNKE, Randall L ZIKER, John

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Frank Smith
390 S.E. 110 Ave.
Bluff City , KS 67018
Ph: (620)967-4616
Fax: (620)967-4616
Email: fsmith@kanokla.net

I am particularly interested in the effects on individuals, families and tribal communities of the brokering and exportation of inmates to faraway, for-profit prison operations and the leverage those corporations exercise upon the passage of more draconian criminal justice penalties in the interest of increasing their potential revenues. I believe these sociological and anthropological issues are rarely, if ever, addressed in public or academic circles.

Frank Smith's career has included public education and legislative lobbying, case managing and outreaching homeless mentally ill, researching in criminal justice and drug abuse, directing an ex-offender reentry service center, and directing the third largest outpatient substance abuse treatment and education program in Alaska. He retired as an Alaska State Social Worker in child protection in 1997 and lived full time in Barrow from 1992-99. He was an Alaskan court-appointed Guardian ad litem, custody and probate investigator from 1997 through 2003 and did adoption studies for the courts. He has testified as an expert witness for over three decades. He moved to South-central Kansas in 1999 to marry Susan Armstrong, a long-time Alaskan resident, but maintains close ties with many Alaskan communities. He received the honorary name, "Storm Murrelet," in 2001 from the Yan Yedi (Juneau) Tlingit clan of the Wolf Moiety. It was confirmed in Sitka in 2004.

Mr. Smith has been a free lance reporter for decades, writes regular opinion-editorial columns including the monthly "Prairie Populist" and contributed a chapter, "Native Americans in Private Prisons" to "Capitalist Punishment," published in 2003. He has been a labor leader for 34 years, was an Executive Board member of Alaska's largest union and currently serves as the Vice-President of the Alaska AFSCME Retirement Chapter. He was an elected official to  Alaska's Democratic Party representing the Arctic area after serving as vice-chair of the party's Environmental Caucus of the State Executive Board in California. He is currently a Green Party U.S. National Committee member representing Kansas. He is serving his second term in the Kansas Silver Haired Legislature. He is a graduate of the California State University at San Francisco, completed all coursework for a Masters in Industrial/Organization Psychology, and was advanced to PhD candidacy at the Humanistic Psychology (Saybrook) Institute.

Mr. Smith is an experienced public speaker having done academic and community presentations, radio and television interviews, panels and programs for over three decades. He is interested in speaking to a wide range of audiences and he is available year round.

His lecture titles include:

"For-profit prisons - Pay now or pay later?"

"Family Services: Protecting the children or protecting the bureaucrats?"

"Does marijuana prohibition discriminate against indigenous Alaskans in private and public employment?"

"Community organizing and the use of the media."