Founder & CEO

---

Tanya M. Smith is a global Leadership & Productivity Strategist and the Founder & CEO of Life In Quarters™, LLC.  Ms. Smith retired from the US Army after 24 years of total service. 

Her military career began as an Army Reserve Radiologic Technician. Wanting to experience the Army on a full-time basis, she resigned from her position as Acting Director for New Jersey’s former largest residential program for male juvenile offenders. 

She became a Cryptologic Linguist and graduated with Honors, from the Spanish Basic Course at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC) in Monterey, California. Throughout her career, she remained mission-focused and results-driven. Her passion for striving to develop effective leaders was instrumental in contributing to the overall success of Soldiers and civilian employees with whom she served. Her extraordinary actions were instrumental in helping build teams that achieved or exceeded organizational goals. 

Ms. Smith successfully served in both traditional and nontraditional Army leadership positions and deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina and Iraq in support of peacekeeping and combat operations. The last assignment she completed in uniform was at Fort Meade, Maryland. As the Command Language Program Manager, she oversaw the Army’s largest unit for linguists. She and her team managed training for over 350 linguists in 14 different language disciplines. Her team was recognized by the Department of Defense and received the Command Language Program Award for 2015 over all the US military language programs. 

Her civilian education includes: Associate in Spanish, Associate in Intelligence Studies, Associate in Applied Science, Bachelor of Liberal Arts and Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership. She also completed the University of Pennsylvania’s Master Resiliency Trainer Certificate program and earned Cornell Executive Leadership Certificates in High Performance Leadership and Executive Leadership. 

Her combined civilian experience and years of service to the nation have provided her invaluable opportunities to see and understand the world from unique perspectives. These experiences have contributed to her ability to develop effective leaders and empower them to grow organizations. 

As a life-long learner with a passion for adding value to organizations and individuals, she became a certified speaker, coach and trainer with the John Maxwell Team. She accepted an opportunity to participate in Costa Rica’s Country Transformation Project March 2018 and assisted with training 15,000 facilitators in a round table process based on life-changing principles.

The International Association for Top Professionals selected her as the 2018 Top Performance Coach and the 2019 Empowered Woman of the Year.  As a member of the International Association of Women, she has been recognized as a 2019 Influencer.

Ms Smith is also a coauthor of Camouflaged Sisters: Leadership Through the Eyes of Senior Military Women Leaders examines the grit, perseverance, and determination it takes to rise through military ranks as a woman in uniform. 

Tanya has been sought after to conduct professional leadership development training for universities, organizations and the military. She is also a member of the National Capital Region’s Total Force Development Council and assists with professionally developing the military community at the Pentagon and throughout the Military District of Washington.

During her free time, Tanya enjoys traveling and supporting community service projects.