{"id":138862,"date":"2026-01-31T15:56:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T15:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/138862\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T15:56:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T15:56:07","slug":"desantis-appoints-southcom-smith-to-miami-dade-college-board-miami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/138862\/","title":{"rendered":"DeSantis appoints SouthCom Smith to Miami Dade College Board | Miami"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Friday, Governor Ron DeSantis announced the appointment of David J. Smith to the Miami Dade College (MDC) District Board of Trustees.<\/p>\n

Smith, a resident of Miami with extensive ties to the U.S. military and the local legal community, joins the seven-member governing body responsible for overseeing the nation\u2019s largest undergraduate institution.<\/p>\n

Smith currently serves in a high-level capacity at the United States Southern Command<\/a> (SOUTHCOM) in Doral. As the Special Assistant to the Combatant Commander and a speechwriter for the Commander\u2019s Action Group, he plays a key role in drafting strategic messaging and advising on military operations across the Caribbean and Latin America.<\/p>\n

Before his current role at SOUTHCOM, Smith served the local community as a prosecutor under Miami-Dade County State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle.<\/p>\n

Smith is a graduate of the University of Miami, where he earned his bachelor\u2019s degree in political science, and holds a Juris Doctor from Suffolk University. He also earned a master’s degree from the U.S. Naval War College<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The MDC Board of Trustees<\/a> is tasked with setting policy, approving the annual budget, and guiding the strategic direction of the college\u2019s eight campuses. Smith\u2019s appointment follows the recent naming of former Rep. Jos\u00e9 F\u00e9lix D\u00edaz and Detective Juan Segovia to the board late last year.<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s appointment is subject to confirmation by the Florida Senate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Friday, Governor Ron DeSantis announced the appointment of David J. Smith to the Miami Dade College (MDC)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[67673,67672,123,4287,125,124,8679,412,64617],"class_list":{"0":"post-138862","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-florida-board-of-trustees-appointments","9":"tag-ksy-biscayne","10":"tag-miami","11":"tag-miami-dade-college","12":"tag-miami-headlines","13":"tag-miami-news","14":"tag-miami-dade-college-board-of-trustees","15":"tag-ron-desantis","16":"tag-southcom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}