Lee Smedley

Lee Smedley brings a wealth of experience and expertise to his work. The son of working-class parents from an Ohio Valley steel town, he inherited their positive work ethic; he was valedictorian of his high school class. His leadership skills have been acknowledged throughout his career; he was recognized as outstanding senior at his undergraduate college, a Jaycee Outstanding Young Man in America, and has been cited in Who’s Who in the East.

Dr. Smedley holds degrees in chemistry from Bethany College and the College of William and Mary and in adult education and training from West Virginia University. He has taught full time at the college level and has conducted literally hundreds of training sessions for organizations in the United States and Canada.

While his work career includes more than 30 years in education and training, he has also held general management positions, including Manager of the Field Operations at the Hamburg Office of Met-Ed/Penelec. After a successful career at GPU, he retired from his position as Director of Organizational Development in 2001. Since that time, he has devoted himself full-time to Smedley Consulting, a business he began in 1996.

Lee’s platform skills and academic credentials have helped him establish a solid reputation with both clients and peers. He has contributed to forums with Michael Hammer and Deloitte Consulting, and reviewed the manuscript for John Kotter’s recent field book on leading change. He has presented locally, regionally and nationally on topics of experiential education, customer service, facilitation, feedback, life balance, leadership, teamwork….a plethora of education topics and business issues. In addition, his writings have been published in academic and business journals and he currently contributes regularly to Training Media Review.

As a student at William and Mary, he sang as a strolling balladeer in the taverns of historic Williamsburg. Continuing that tradition, he incorporates his original songs about organizational issues into his training and development sessions – making him the nation’s first official “Business Balladeer.” Recently, he expanded his offerings to include keynotes and conference presentations that include those songs.

Lee is past president of the Reading Area Trainers Organization and a member of the American Society for Training and Development and the Alban Institute. He is also Project Director of the Small Church Leadership Initiative and Development Director of the Hamburg Area Education Foundation.

Lee’s hobbies are hiking, singing and songwriting. He has backpacked in the Grand Canyon, climbed Mt. Snowden in Wales, and explored the highland rain forest of Grenada. Lee is a follower of Jesus Christ and claims Ephesians 2:10 as an inspiration for his work. He and his wife, Sally, live in Shoemakersville, Pa., with their two feisty female Jack Russells, Xena and Nikita.