![\"Tiffany](\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/jones-smith-oct25.jpg\")
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It\u2019s one thing to find a career. It\u2019s another to find a calling.<\/p>\n
When Tiffany Jones\u2011Smith<\/a> (BA ’95) graduated from Baylor, she couldn\u2019t have known that her future would involve leading a statewide health initiative. Still, her heart for service and community was already clear. Today, as president and CEO of the Texas Kidney Foundation<\/a> and chair of the Texas Chronic Kidney Disease Task Force<\/a>, she\u2019s become a fierce advocate for health equity, early screening, and life-saving policy. Her work reaches thousands of Texans each year, especially in communities where access to care has been historically limited.<\/p>\n Jones\u2011Smith\u2019s mission is deeply personal. After losing 15 family members to kidney disease and discovering she carries a high-risk genetic marker herself, she turned her grief into action. Under her leadership, the foundation has screened more than 16,000 people, reached over 1 million Texas households with educational campaigns, and built the state\u2019s largest community-based kidney health dataset. Her approach combines research, policy and storytelling — all grounded in her philosophy of \u201cNeighbors Helping Neighbors.\u201d For her efforts, Jones-Smith was honored this fall by the Baylor Black Alumni Alliance with the Mrs. Barbara Walker Distinguished Black Alumni Achievement Award<\/a>.<\/p>\n A trailblazer in more ways than one, Jones\u2011Smith is the first woman, the first African American, and the first person living with a genetic kidney condition to lead the state\u2019s kidney disease task force. She\u2019s also using cutting-edge tools like AI to predict and prevent kidney problems earlier, while amplifying patient voices through her podcast, “On the Record with Tiffany and Kevin<\/a>.”\u00a0It\u2019s a unique blend of science, empathy, and lived experience — and it’s changing the way Texas approaches chronic disease.<\/p>\n Jones\u2011Smith credits her time at Baylor with shaping both her faith and her focus. As a student, she studied English, philosophy, and political science, a foundation that prepared her for a career rooted in advocacy and impact. Today, her work is a powerful reminder of what happens when purpose meets passion.<\/p>\n Sic \u2019em, Tiffany!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s one thing to find a career. It\u2019s another to find a calling. When Tiffany Jones\u2011Smith (BA ’95) graduated from Baylor, she couldn\u2019t have known that her future would involve leading a statewide health initiative. Still, her heart for service and community was already clear. Today, as president and CEO of the Texas Kidney Foundation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alumni","category-service"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24929\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}