Melvin E. Smith is the CEO and President of ITS and the C.R. Smith Foundation. Smith served in the U.S. Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Administration for 25 years. He directed DEA’s participation in Drug Abuse Free America Week and National Red Ribbon Week celebrations and was responsible for a national training seminar involving federal agents, school administrators and local law enforcement personnel.

While a graduate student at Eastern Michigan University, Smith led an initiative to bring an alternative school to reality and was granted a charter to start a public school academy. Smith secured funding for renovation of the facility, planned the outlines of the curriculum, secured preliminary staff and completed all administrative requirements to open the academy in 1996 to more than 300 students.

Smith has received numerous awards as a special agent for the U.S. Department of Justice. He has also received the Tiger Woods Foundation Sharing and Caring Award in 1998, the Eastern Michigan University (EMU) Outstanding Young Alumnus Award in 1998, the Educator of the Year Award from the Frederick Douglas Society in 1997, the EMU Master of Liberal Studies Dedicated Service Award in 1995, and the EMU Honors Student Award in 1993 & 1994.