Stephen D. Smith Ph.D
CEO & Co-Founder, StoryFile
Stephen D. Smith is CEO and co-founder of StoryFile, the world’s first AI conversational video platform that brings video alive. Stephen is an international speaker and oral historian who specializes in immersive media. In addition to his role at StoryFile, Stephen serves as Executive Director Emeritus of USC Shoah Foundation, the archive founded by Steven Spielberg to document the Holocaust and genocide. He is a theologian by training and in that capacity is USC Visiting Professor of Religion, where he researches genocide related testimony. Stephen has authored several books and has one new title out this year, The Trajectory of Memory, and one forthcoming, Holocaust XR. Stephen is a member of the order of the British Empire.
In addition, Stephen founded the UK Holocaust Centre in England and cofounded the Aegis Trust for the prevention of crimes against humanity and genocide. He was also the inaugural Chairman of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, which runs the National Holocaust Memorial Day in the United Kingdom. Smith was the project director responsible for the creation of the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre in Rwanda and trustee of the South Africa Holocaust and Genocide Foundation. Smith is producer of Tell Me, Inge… in association with Meta, which is a VR experience. Smith has also produced several documentary films. These include The Last Goodbye, an award-winning, virtual-reality film that transports viewers inside the Nazi death camp Majdanek, and The Girl and The Picture, an award-winning documentary that centers on a survivor of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre in China. Stephen was the inaugural UNESCO Chair on Genocide Education and lectures widely on issues relating to his expertise. His publications include Never Again! Yet Again!: A Personal Struggle with the Holocaust and Genocide; In recognition of his work, he has received the Interfaith Gold Medallion and holds two honorary doctorates.
The effort to eradicate hate requires the active participation of every component of our society, to include governments, the private sector, communities of faith and indeed every aspect of civil society. There is no more urgent task in front of us. The organizers of the Eradicate Hate Global Summit are doing the United States and the world an enormous service by tackling hatred and extremism with a focus on honest dialogue and conversation, genuine learning and practical solutions. This will not happen overnight, but the Pittsburgh community’s leadership in this effort is genuinely inspiring and motivating.
