Justice Smith is in his fifth year as an Associate Athletic Director for Academic Services at Utah State.
In his role, Smith provides vision and direction to the Student-Athlete Academic Services (SAAS) staff in coordinating academic services and campus resources for all 16 intercollegiate athletic programs, along with providing direct oversight of all functions and programs as they pertain to student-athlete academic achievement, progress toward degree, and eligibility.
Smith also serves on assigned campus committees and councils to maintain collaborative relationships with on-campus offices and resources, assist compliance in processing and submitting Academic Progress Rate (APR) and Graduation Success Rate (GSR) annually, emphasize welfare of student-athletes in all initiatives, and manage the SAAS program budget.
Smith came to Utah State after working as an academic coach for football at Arizona State for five years. With the Sun Devils, he provided strategic and tactical leadership for implementation of programs to achieve student-athlete success objectives. He also worked with compliance to ensure initial eligibility and admission, and oversaw all logistics and budgeting for the spring graduation event and initiatives for Sun Devil Athletics (SDA).
At Arizona State, Smith collaborated with presidents, vice presidents, directors and staff to meet operational objectives, improve programs, coordinate resources, engage students and manage staff for enhanced effectiveness. He also assisted in hiring staff.
Smith also held other positions at ASU, including administrative director for Scholar Baller Initiative (SBI), SDA graduation event director, SDA Tip of the Fork leadership co-director and SDA inclusion committee.
Smith also worked at Weber State, where he was an athletic academic advisor from 2013-15. He worked primarily with the football and men’s basketball programs, and also held positions such as assistant compliance coordinator and event management assistant.
The native of Amsterdam, New York., worked as an athletic director, physical education and health teacher at Crittenton Youth Academy (CYA) from 2002-09 in Phoenix, Arizona. He left there to work at Wayland (Mass.) Public School District as both the athletic director and health and wellness curriculum director from 2010-13.
Smith earned a master’s degree in secondary education from the University of Phoenix in 2005 and a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in education from Boston College in 1996.
While at Boston College, Smith was a running back for the Eagles and helped lead the team to three bowl appearances. A knee injury in his senior year at BC ended Smith’s college football career, which was highlighted by his 147 yards and two touchdowns on 27 carries in a 30-11 win over Notre Dame in his junior season.
After two years of rehabbing a torn PCL, Smith got the playing bug out of his system with a year of football with the Rovaniemi Arctic Circle Stars in Finland, where he played in the Suomi League. He helped the Circle Stars to a No. 3 ranking in Finland and led the country in rushing yards.
Returning stateside in 1998, Smith moved to Arizona the following year and spent seven years at Crittenton – a charter school for at-risk youth – as a health educator and athletic director. This led to Smith creating an athletic department from scratch.
Smith, the career rushing leader in Section II when he graduated in 1991 from Amsterdam High School, finished his prep career with 4,124 rushing yards. As a senior, he helped the Rams to an unbeaten season and was named the state Class A Player of the Year.
Smith and his wife, Paige, have three children: daughters Tatum and Phoebe, and son, Gunnar.
