ABOUT CHILDREN'S

Tyler Smith, Member

Tyler Smith was born in Puyallup, Washington and raised in Tacoma. He entered the child welfare system at the age of 10 and lived in a number of different homes until he was permanently placed with a foster parent at the age of 12. He lived with this woman, whom he fondly considers to be family, until he was 18. Now, he lives in Seattle with his Australian Cattle Dog, Tucker, in the eclectic Capitol Hill neighborhood.

Tyler is a social worker and earned his credentials from the University of Washington. He also aims to matriculate into a Master of Business Administration program to further his ability to provide leadership in organizations that promote social change and well-being. His interest areas are social work administration, health care delivery and child welfare. Specifically, Tyler is interested in the ways that large social and health care organizations can deliver services that are meaningful and effective for the patient, while also maintaining fiscal responsibility and efficacy. Tyler currently works at the UW Medical Center where he acts as a liaison between the inpatient and outpatient settings, providing a bridge for patients who are acutely ill as they transition care between settings. As member of a comprehensive discharge consultation team, his work aims to reduce hospital readmissions while maximizing the care patients receive.

Aside from his day job, Tyler fulfills his passion for serving foster youth by working alongside a Seattle-area consulting firm and the Human Rights Campaign to deliver educational trainings from the HRCs All Children, All Families project. This project aims to improve service delivery to foster youth who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered by improving organizational cultural competency, setting standards for evaluation of said competencies and encouraging affirming parents to become involved in the foster care system. He also makes himself available pro-bono as a speaker to local non-profits and groups interested in understanding how to better serve and enhance quality of life for young LGBT people.