James A. Smith, III, MD
PHEN Ambassador, Virginia
Dr. James A. Smith, III is a retired psychiatrist with 46 years of service to the community. He is also a PHEN Ambassador and the immediate past President of the North Carolina Minority Prostate Cancer Awareness Action Team. He has worked as both a health educator and a psychiatrist for over 40 years. Dr. Smith was the Medical Director Emeritus of Mind Path Health, LLC, which was the largest psychiatric practice in the nation at the time of his retirement.
He completed his education at Howard University in Washington, DC, where he obtained his BS and M.D. He completed his internship in Internal Medicine at Harlem Hospital and his residency in Psychiatry at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He left the Army after Desert Storm/Shield with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He is board-certified in Psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. He is proud to be a second-generation psychiatrist, following in his father’s footsteps in this profession. His father is also a Howard University medical graduate. He has held faculty appointments with both Duke University and the UNC Departments of Psychiatry. He was Chair of the Wake County Human Services Board from 2014 to 2019. Then he was selected as the Chair of the Board of Directors of Urban Ministries of Wake Co. until May of 2023. He has been a Board Member of the Governor’s Institute on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse and Catholic Social Ministries, Diocese of Raleigh. Most recently, he was selected by the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors to be on the Health System Advisory Board of Northern Virginia, and on June 15th, he was selected to be a board member of Shelter House of Fairfax and Loudoun Counties, addressing homelessness and domestic violence.
He is a member of the North Carolina Psychiatric Association and the American Psychiatric Association, where he is a Distinguished Life Fellow. He has been a member of the Advisory Council of the Rex Prostate Cancer Center of Excellence, and he remains on the Community Advisory Board of the UNC Lineberger Cancer Center.
Dr. Smith was honored by North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper for his commitment to the health and well-being of the citizens of Eastern North Carolina, as he bestowed on Dr. Smith the “Order of the Long Leaf Pine Award”. Maryland Governor Wes Moore also awarded him a Governor’s Citation at the annual Emanual Health Education Center awards ceremony on prostate cancer in September of 2024, where he was awarded their “Lifetime Achievement Award”. Dr. Smith and his sister, Mrs. Melanie Felton, are establishing an endowment at Howard University to give yearly the “Smith Family Award” to a graduating medical student going into psychiatry to honor his father and a second award to a graduating medical student going into infectious disease to honor their sister, Dr. Margo Ann Smith.
