Emory Smith of Tifton, familiar to area residents for his work with Southwest Georgia YMCA District, has been named as the full-time director of development at Bainbridge College (BC).

He brings an extensive background in fund-raising and in college teaching.

BC President Tom Wilkerson introduced Smith at the Bainbridge College Foundation’s annual meeting held Oct. 27 in the Charles H. Kirbo Regional Center, where Smith has his office.

“I am not the fund-raiser for the college,” Smith said during a meeting at which he was introduced to colleagues on campus. “I am the fund-raiser for the students.”

In his brief remarks to the Foundation, Smith accepted the challenge to raise endowed scholarships to $1 million, saying the challenge is not about money, but about fulfilling dreams for a better life.

Illustrating his point, Smith spoke of his mother’s dream of higher education for all her children, having been unable to attend college after her father’s unexpected death. Her four children did graduate from college.

Smith, who served as executive director of Southwest Georgia YMCA and was its chief fund-raiser for 15 years, graduated from Brunswick Junior College, now the College of Coastal Georgia.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in sociology and master’s in clinical psychology from Valdosta State College and holds a master of divinity degree from Emory University.

He taught at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, Brewton Parker College and Tift College, and he was Brewton Parker’s campus director of its Norman Park site.