Dave Smith is Illinois Family Institute’s executive director.  He and his wife of 25 years are blessed to be the parents of eight children.

David has 20-plus-years of experience in public policy and grass-roots activism that includes countless interviews for numerous radio, television, cable programs and newspaper articles on topics such as the sanctity of life, natural marriage, broadcast decency, sex education, marijuana, gambling, abortion, homosexuality, tax policy, drug decriminalization and pornography.

From 1996 – 2004, he worked as an aide to a City of Chicago Alderman.  During that time, he was a volunteer decency advocate for the group Citizens for Community Values of Illinois, filing 70 indecency complaints over a period of four years with the FCC against a nationally syndicated radio shock jock based in Chicago.  His efforts resulted in fines totaling $300,000 against the radio station owners.

In 2005 – 2006, Dave led IFI’s referendum project to protect marriage , filing more than 347,000 signatures at the Illinois State Board of Elections.  Unfortunately, state and county employees discredited almost 70 percent of the names from the Cook County jurisdiction, bringing the final count to less than the required number needed.

An alumnus of the Family Research Council’s Witherspoon Fellowship, David graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a B.A. in Political Science.

Dave also serves as a Republican Precinct Committeeman and is an ordained minister and elder in his local church.