Nadia Smith, TOF, is the co-founder of Chesterton Academy of St. Padre Pio and an award-winning journalist whose career has spanned three continents. After serving as a public relations specialist for an international nonprofit aid organization in Australia, she moved to Rome, Italy, where she worked as a radio host and news reporter for Vatican Radio during the pontificate of St. John Paul II. Upon returning to the United States, Nadia continued her work as a correspondent for various diocesan and national Catholic publications. For the past decade, she has advanced the mission of the Catholic Medical Association in leadership roles including Director of Communications and Editor-in-Chief.

Nadia’s commitment to evangelization was deeply influenced by St. John Paul II’s call to the New Evangelization by the laity. She founded a number of ministries dedicated to the formation of young adults and women and served as a retreat and conference speaker for many years. She also served as a catechist in Long Island, New York, and Madison, Wisconsin. In the Diocese of Venice, she emceed the annual Women’s Conference for five years and, alongside her husband, George Smith, co-emceed the diocesan Youth Rally for eight years.

Nadia also served as a sidewalk counselor and volunteered with pregnancy resource centers, maternity homes, and post-abortion healing ministries in New York, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. Her outreach to the poor included collaboration with the Missionaries of Charity in the United States, Ecuador, Australia, Canada, and Italy, as well as outreach to the homeless alongside the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal in the Bronx and New York City. She met her husband through their ministry work with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, and together they are blessed with three children. Nadia is also a Third Order Franciscan of the Immaculate Conception Province.

For the past three years, Nadia has led the establishment of Chesterton Academy of St. Padre Pio as Board Chair and now serves as the school’s President. Guided by her belief in the transformative power of a Catholic classical education and joyful Catholic culture, she is committed to the Academy’s mission to form Christ-centered young men and women equipped to lead a much-needed cultural renewal with faith, wisdom, and courage.