Judy Smith on Responding to a Crisis

March 13, 2020
Watch it on Chicago Ideas

Judy Smith, the architect behind the public response to some of the most significant crises of our lifetime—including the SARS outbreak in 2002—addresses the role information (and its exchange) plays in shaping how people react to a critical situation.

Karine Jean-Pierre Is The 1st Black Woman In Decades To Brief White House Press
July 12, 2021

When Karine Jean-Pierre stepped behind the lectern to take reporters’ questions in the briefing room Wednesday, she was the first Black woman to speak for the White House in that capacity in three decades.

Judy Smith — inspiration for ‘Scandal’ TV series — on her path to the White House
January 3, 2021

From riding past in her father’s taxicab to working inside the Oval Office, crisis management expert Judy Smith tells the little-known story of her path to becoming the first Black woman to brief the White House press corps. Smith, CEO of Smith & Company and the inspiration for Shonda Rhimes’s hit series “Scandal,” tells Yahoo

EPISODE 37 — Judy Smith — Managing Crisis Like a Professional Fixer
December 8, 2020

Judy Smith‘s work as a world-renowned crisis management expert and entrepreneur has earned her the reputation of being the ultimate “fixer.” She was George H. W. Bush’s Deputy Press Secretary, she graduated law school, and her ground-breaking work even inspired a hit TV show: Scandal. In this episode, Judy unlocks her vault of expertise to teach