Richard Smith

Richard Smith is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Management and Planning, Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE), U.S. Department of Education. Prior to joining the U. S. Department of Education as a Presidential Management Intern, Mr. Smith worked for a New York State Senator and the Office of the Governor in Delaware. Mr. Smith joined the Department of Education's Budget Service in 1991 with developmental assignments in the United States Senate and the Office of the Vice President. He has been the Department’s Director of the Office of Correctional Education, a senior advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Vocational and Adult Education, the Chief of Staff for the Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) and served as Acting Assistant Deputy Secretary and Director of OELA from May 2008 through July 2010.

In October 2010, he joined the Office of Management as a senior advisor to the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary and served as Chief of Staff from 2012 - 2018 and Chief of Staff for the Office of Finance and Operations from January 2019 - March 2020. In April 2020, he became the OCTAE Deputy Assistant Secretary for Management in Planning. During the current administration transition at the Department, he has served as OCTAE’s Acting Assistant Secretary and continues to have the delegated authority to perform the functions and duties of the Under Secretary of Education.