Jacob Evan Smith
Detroiter Jacob Evan Smith makes his mark as a connector, community organizer, visual artist and voice amplifier.
“I grew up in a progressive-minded household and inclusivity has been important to me since I was a child on the playground. I didn’t like anyone being left out,” he explained. “My creative and entrepreneurial bent was influenced by my parents. My father is an architect, and my mother is a speech therapist turned master gardener. Both have an eye for design and beauty.”
Smith grew up in West Bloomfield and graduated from Groves High School and University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. Over the past 15 years, his winding career path has included business ownership, business development and community building.
He recently started a new position as TechTown Detroit’s Director of Mobility & Health Innovation. He said his main role is “to facilitate initiatives by connecting startup founders to people and resources to help them thrive and develop a network of value-added partners.”
Outside his work at TechTown Detroit, Smith is busy as an artist as well as a community connector and organizer.
He started an art and design company, MazySuzan, during the recent COVID-19 pandemic when he found himself at home with time and energy to create. His artwork focuses on funky interactive maze creations that “invite your inner child out to play.”
Smith’s creative mazes have been publicly displayed, and he has produced commissioned pieces. “I’ve been drawn to art and mazes my whole life. They promote focus and are calming -–and when I was a kid, they were a way to entertain my friends.”
He has a vision of creating an interactive design studio in the future.
Smith was also involved in launching The Coalition Series – ongoing casual dinners that include Black and Jewish Detroiters and friends to connect over food, art and music while building meaningful human-to-human relationships and cross-cultural understanding. Smith started hosting the unifying group dinners with his friend, Brandon Christopher, about seven years ago. Their uplifting gatherings were featured nationally on CBS Mornings in 2023.
“We hold big dinners throughout the year with the goal to empower members to build real connections and friendships and to have smaller at-home dinners with each other,” he said. “We’d like to see this model replicated to other areas outside Detroit.”
Additionally, the energetic Detroiter produces and co-hosts, with Erik Burgess, a podcast called The Returning Citizen, an inspirational Detroit-based storytelling platform that tells success stories of people transitioning out of prison. The podcast also features helpful resources and programs to help formerly incarcerated individuals create pathways to self-sufficiency and success.
“With the podcast, we try to elevate the voices of positive role models to inspire, motivate and show what is possible.”
Smith recently married and bought a house in Detroit’s Islandview neighborhood with his wife, Amanda Nouhan. The neighborhood is on the city’s lower eastside, west of Indian Village with views of Belle Isle. He enjoys playing basketball, collecting vintage sci-fi novels, travel and being an uncle to two nephews.
When it comes to making time for his various passions, initiatives and commitments, Smith offered, “It’s about narrowing the scope and zeroing in on or aligning my greatest strengths and passion of community-oriented connection and organization and expanding capacity by building teams.”
He added, “I’ve learned my lesson and now I push away things that drain my energy and move toward things that give me energy because no matter how noble it may be, it’s not sustainable if it’s draining my energy.
“When the focus is on things that give you energy, it doesn’t feel like work.”
Story: Tracy Donohue
Photo: Theodore Michael
