Leslie Smart is the President of the CHI Saint Joseph Health Foundations overseeing six foundations across Kentucky and southern Indiana which collectively provide program, capital and research support to CHI’s Saint Joseph Health’s hospitals and facilities. Past president of a communications and development firm, she has served as two-term president of the Association of Fund-Raising Professionals, Greater Louisville Chapter, and the Committee on Directorship for the International Association of Fundraising Professionals. Prior to her current role she served as the executive director of Philanthropy for the Children’s Hospital Foundation. She has been engaged in volunteer and professional leadership for over 28 nonprofits in Kentucky.
She is a past director for the board of the Louisville Ballet, the Kentucky Opera and is currently on the board of Leadership Kentucky, Downtown Lexington Partnership, New Opportunity School for Women and the Fund for the Arts. She also chairs the Stewardship Committee for Christ the King and serves on the Leadership Lexington Program Committee.
Opera is a very personal passion for Leslie Smart, who first heard it “in my mother’s womb.” Her mother studied voice under Fletcher Smith, head of the University of Louisville Voice Department. Her favorite aria to sing was “Un bel di vedremo” from Madame Butterfly, a piece so important to her it was the first piece performed at her funeral in 2019. Ms. Smart feels blessed to have grown up in a home filled with her mother’s beautiful voice, which she still hears, and has a deep-seeded passion and love for this exceptional art form.
