Renee Smith came out of retirement to help families in Memphis and the surrounding area have access to a quality education. She is the Director of Choice and Counseling with The Memphis Lift, where she assists families in underserved communities find high quality schools for their children to attend. She has two children of her own, three grandchildren, and one great grandchild. She attended Shelby State Community College, now Southwest Tennessee Community College. During her three decades working in childcare, she earned accreditations from the National Association for the Education of Young Children and the National Association for Child Care Professionals now the National Association for Early Learning Leaders. In the last decade of her career in childcare, she opened her home to neighborhood families, offering high quality childcare that families and single parents in the community could afford.