Ricardo Smith is currently the Program Director for a Medicaid program of the nation’s 20th largest school district, where he leads a team of 10 members and is responsible for all operations including, budgeting, reporting, audit compliance, software improvements, and user training. Under his leadership, the program became the first school district in the State of Maryland to implement a cloud-base system that was later adopted by most of the larger districts within the State. Through his improvements, the program increased revenues by 40% in the first year and 15% each year after. Mr. Smith also served as the Fiscal Officer for the County’s Head Start program and formed part of the management team that successfully turned around the accountability and confidence in the program that serves some of the County’s most needy children. He was responsible for budgeting, financial reporting, and financial administration of the $7 million program.

Prior to that he was the Director of Financial Operations/Controller with various government agencies where he administered financial operations of a $900 million organization including payroll for 14,000 employees and accounts payable of over 35,000 invoices. He was responsible for the integrity of all financial transactions and constantly assessed the financial systems for internal control weaknesses. 

Ricardo is a Certified Management Accountant and a Certified Healthcare Financial Professional. He has a Doctorate in Business Administration and a Masters in Business Administration. He serves on the board of several organizations including the National Alliance for Medicaid in Education and is a member of the Institute of Management Accountants and the Healthcare Financial Management Association. Mr. Smith has presented at National and State conferences, including “Sustaining the Winds of Medicaid Change” at the NAME conference.

Ricardo loves to play golf, volleyball and tennis. He supports causes for students with special needs, education of students in developing countries, and sports for children.