From sheltering at Children’s Inn to becoming corporate leader, Sioux Falls woman shares her story

This paid piece is sponsored by Children’s Home Society.

It was always the middle of the night when Natasha Smith and her mother would arrive at a new shelter.

“And it’s just such a terrible feeling,” Smith said. “It’s dark out. You don’t know what the outside of this big building looks like. You don’t know what the morning will bring.”

She remembers the sound of buzzers. In the middle of the night, you always had to buzz. Doors were locked for safety.

But one night was different.

One night, when Smith said her mom “got on the interstate and drove until she was too tired to keep driving,” the exit was Sioux Falls. The shelter was Children’s Inn.

And when the family rang that buzzer, everything began to change.

“It was just a very warm and welcoming environment. Children’s Inn was the first place we landed that really felt like home. Other places I had been to around the country lacked the same community support for their shelters, and it showed. They had a very industrial feel – lots of white walls, fluorescent lights. They just did not feel like a home,” Smith said.

“We ended up in South Dakota without knowing a soul. But the silver lining was that we did find a community that is very generous and very empathetic and very caring. I think Children’s Inn is an illustration of that.”

And Smith herself is an illustration of what can happen when a child gains the support system needed for stability and ultimately success.

Now 33, she’s the head of diversity, equity and inclusion at Sanford Health, building on a corporate career that has brought her national recognition and positioned her as a leader in the Sioux Falls business community.

Challenging start

Smith’s start in life didn’t set her up for that kind of future. By the time she was a toddler, she was moving in and out of homes and women’s shelters all throughout the middle part of the country.

It was the consequence of generational poverty, she explains. Her mother had lost both parents by the age of 16.

“My mom did not have much for family outside of her parents, so she began the kind of life that you might imagine when someone is in that situation without mentors or family to help support,” Smith said.

“My dad’s father died when he was in high school. He had to drop out and start working to help support his family because he had 10 brothers and sisters. There was such a lack of support and infrastructure in both of their lives growing up.”

She now sees both her parents as victims of trauma.

“Certainly, trauma played a big role in our lives at least in the beginning. There was a lot of drug use and violence, for sure,” she said. “My mom and dad were on and off a lot, and there were times when we would move back to Texas on the promise that Mom and Dad were getting back together again. That instability really defined my younger years.”

Her time at Children’s Inn, which spanned two long stays, brought much-needed stability to a child who had lived with housing and food insecurity her entire life.

“To a little kid, that feels pretty magical, and when you’ve been dealing with insecure housing, the big, tall ceilings and the large windows were really comforting,” she said.

“I will never forget waking up on Christmas morning to gifts that were donated by the Sioux Falls community. That had never happened before; there were many holidays we went without gifts. Children’s Inn does such amazing work. And now that it’s expanding, I’m so glad they’ll be able to house even more children in that really warm, homelike environment.”

When she left Children’s Inn, she stayed in Sioux Falls. She attended Lincoln and Washington high schools, and generational patterns began to repeat themselves.

“I had my first child when I was 16 years old; they are now 16 themselves,” Smith said. “I had to drop out of high school because at the time there wasn’t a lot of infrastructure helping teen moms continue their education.”

Building a career

After working a variety of jobs, Smith earned her GED through Volunteers of America and then attended what is now The Community College of Sioux Falls, drawn to the nontraditional environment that fit her life as a young working mother. During those years, she began working for Wells Fargo.

“I started in the call center, but Wells Fargo had a good leadership development path for folks who really wanted to achieve more in their careers,” Smith said. “I transferred to their community bank as a personal banker, I got my investment licenses and worked in the private bank and then moved into branch management for a number of years, leading a team of other banking professionals.”

In her last role, she moved into corporate social responsibility and corporate philanthropy to oversee the Wells Fargo Foundation’s investments in the Upper Midwest region.

“I worked to ensure that those investments were equitable and helped under-represented populations achieve prosperity,” she said. “Workforce development was a big part of that as well as affordable housing. We partnered with homeless shelters, domestic violence shelters and transitional housing facilities to help build equitable communities.”

While she never expected to leave the bank, after nearly a decade, the opportunity to lead DE&I at Sanford drew her.

“I’m really looking to do a lot of that same work here. I want to continue building a workforce that reflects our communities and to keep fostering a culture that is centered around career mobility and professional growth,” Smith said. “Equitable organizations enrich the communities where their workforce lives, and that builds loyalty. I love being a part of that work.”

She credits many mentors, including Kathy Graff at Wells Fargo who “saw potential in me and elevated me into a leadership role while mentoring me and providing me with ample leadership development opportunities.”

After Smith won the company’s Volunteer of the Year award in 2018, Cristina Castro-Matukewicz, the senior vice president of corporate social responsibility and a first-generation American, met with her and promoted her into corporate philanthropy.

“She taught me everything from the ground up on grant writing, grant making, grant evaluation and so much more,” Smith said. “I am indebted to both of these women for my career trajectory and growth. They provided me with opportunity that certainly paved the way to head of DE&I at Sanford. Mentoring those behind us is a crucial element of equitable communities. Professionally, I have had a fierce circle of women who lifted me up, poured into me and never treated me like I didn’t deserve a chance at a good life, despite my childhood or beginnings.”

Smith also has had a powerful role model closer to home.

“When we first arrived in Sioux Falls, my mom was working in fast food. She then became a CNA at a long-term care facility,” she said. “By the time I was in high school, she went back to college to become an RN. I watched the ways she gave 100 percent, no matter what job she was doing. It didn’t matter if it was a front-line, entry-level position or providing care to COVID patients as an RN. I was always called to do more because I saw her dedication to a better life growing up.”

Today, Smith and her mother actually work for the same organization. Her mother is at the Good Samaritan Society, which is part of Sanford.

“It’s inspiring to see that despite such a rough beginning, she was able to find healing too,” Smith said.

It would be easy to try to forget those days when both relied on the Children’s Inn. Instead, it’s a story Smith said she’s happy to share.

“I’m always willing to share my story because I have to imagine there are a lot of children that come through Children’s Inn who deal with those same emotions, struggling to see past the shame and feeling like it defines them. If I didn’t tell people and I weren’t really proactive in bringing this part of who I am alongside me in my professional life, people wouldn’t know,” she said.

“Shame is an emotion that thrives in the dark, and I choose to live in the light. Telling our stories is a powerful way we can show people that their circumstances don’t have to define them. If they’re in a dark place or if they’re in a scary place, especially as a child, it can feel like it’s their fault. I want them to know that it’s not, and that brighter days are ahead.”

To learn more about Children’s Inn, click here.

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