Ada Smith

Ada (she/her) is from Whitesburg, Kentucky. Raised by Appalshop filmmakers, she learned about cultural organizing at an early age. Ada’s politic continues to be informed by Appalachian and rural landscapes, especially the myriad forms of resistance therein. She is a founding member of the Stay Together Appalachian Youth (STAY) Project, has served as a co-facilitator for the Kentucky Rural-Urban Exchange, and finds political home in radical, southern organizing formations. Ada is currently on the board of the Mountain Association, an eastern Kentucky CDFI. After 15 years of movement building, she dreams and builds for what’s to come, knowing liberation is possible in our lifetime.