Photographer/Videographer/Social Media:

Savannah Smith

Savannah Smith was raised attending St. Mark UMC in Atlanta, Georgia. As a young child, watching her church open its doors to the gay community and fight for the rights and dignity of the Atlanta homeless community taught her the kind of person that she wanted to be. Within that church family, she learned the value and importance of social justice, unconditional love, and celebration of the Holy Spirit through the arts.

Through the United Methodist Church, Savannah also got the opportunity to work as a teaching assistant at a summer arts camp at Asbury UMC in Savannah, Georgia, participate in the youth ministries at Midway UMC in Cumming, GA, and spend two summers volunteering with the Appalachian Service Project.

Savannah graduated as the salutatorian of her high school class and later attended the University of Southern California.

Her professional experience includes working in the Admissions Office of the USC School of Dramatic Arts as an Admissions and Academic Services Assistant. Later, she worked as the literary, research, and administrative assistant for the future dean of the School of Dramatic Arts, helping to get a play published. She has 10 years of experience working as a tutor for all grade levels wherein she frequently helped develop her students’ organizational, planning, and communication skills, known collectively as Executive Functioning. Additionally, she is a teaching assistant at the Village Studio in Burbank. Savannah also works as an actor, writer, director, and producer and brings the creative, administrative, and interpersonal skills she has garnered from that interdisciplinary work with her into her administrative, multi-hat position at LA First UMC.

Savannah’s main goal is to be of service to the revolutionary vision set out by Mandy and the members of Los Angeles First UMC, so that the church may flourish, the congregants may be spiritually fulfilled and comforted, and so that the church may make a lasting and meaningful impact on the surrounding community and Los Angeles as a whole.