Nick E. Smith is the Executive Director of Communities Resist, a housing-centered legal and advocacy organization. CoRe is focused on combatting displacement and keeping people in their homes by representing them in legal proceedings and advocating for them, where it matters.From 2019-2024, Nick served in office as First Deputy Public Advocate for the City of New York. In this role, Smith was responsible for representing the Public Advocate and led the policy, legislative, communications and community engagement divisions of the office. He successfully helped pass more than 24 laws in this role; expand the budget of the office by more than 1.3 million dollars; expand the office's reach into Albany and Washington D.C. and served as a voice for New Yorkers often ignored by the "powers that be."Previously, Nick served as a Legislative Representative in the de Blasio Administration. In this role, he negotiated more than 200 pieces of legislation and advised city agency heads.He also served as Deputy Chief of Staff for Williams during his council tenure, and as Director of Legislation and Communications for New York State Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal (D/WF-Manhattan). Finally, Nick was coordinator of the national, non-partisan Education from the Inside Out Coalition, and an appointed Commissioner for the City of Berkeley, California. As Commissioner, Nick was the elected chair of the Commission on Labor, and the Mayor's appointee to the Housing Commission.