Jill W. Smith holds A.B. from Mount Holyoke College and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Upon graduation from Wharton, Ms. Smith worked at Goldman Sachs in securities sales. From 1981-1986, she was vice president in equity trading at Furman, Selz, Mager, Dietz & Birney. In 1995, she became the director of the Innocence Project, which is a litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. She then received her JD from New York Law School in 2002.  She was a  federal criminal defense attorney from 2004-2009.

Ms. Smith is currently the Senior Advisor to the Chairman of the Genesis Prize Foundation. She is a former board member of  Hillel International and UJA Federation of NY, having most recently chaired the task forces “Jewish Life on Campus” and “Combatting BDS”. She also serves on the Board of Moishe House.

In 2010, Ms. Smith became President of the Jewish Foundation for Education of Women (JFEW), which aims to enable women with financial needs to meet their education and career goals through scholarship and supportive services. She has been an active board member at JFEW since 1992. In 2014, Ms. Smith became Chair of JFEW. In 2012, she also became a member of the Oversight Committee for the Corinne Goldsmith Dickinson Center for Multiple Sclerosis at the Mount Sinai Medical Center, NY.
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She is married to Robert C. Smith, a Senior Advisor at Greenhill and Co. They are the parents of Jessica and Lilly, and proud grandparents of Ruby.