As the President and Co-Founder of PeopleKeys Inc., Dr. Bradley Smith knows people and that quality led him to serve on the Adult & Teen Challenge Ohio Valley board. Brad supported ATCOV for many years before his company, which specializes in behavior analysis and unlocking human potential, was contracted by the board. The company was asked to help the Rev. Robert J. Pavlich II transition to become ATCOV’s new chief executive officer.
The former CEO, Roy Barnett, had decided to retire. Dr. Smith and Dr. Sanford “Sandy” G. Kulkin, PeopleKeys CEO and co-founder, initially became interim board members about 4.5 years ago at the request of the organization. “We saw the leadership ability [Rev. Pavlich] had and we totally believed in him,” Dr. Smith said. “We believed in the mission. We believed in the vision. We believed in Pastor Bobby so much that we stayed.” They believed so strongly in the new CEO and his plans that they both became full board members.
Since behavior analysis is their business, the view of Drs. Smith and Kulkin are more than conjecture. Dr. Smith is a certified professional behavioral coach and a licensed behavioral counselor. He earned both his Ph.D. and his master’s degree in organizational development at Logos Graduate School and his bachelor’s in electrical engineering, computer sciences at Kent State University.
The two men also serve on the board of the Bair Foundation Child & Family Ministries, the world’s largest Christian foster care and adoption organization, and have extensive experience with non-profit organizations. “We’ve seen so many organizations fail because they survive strictly on donations,” Dr. Smith said. Rev. Pavlich forged a different path for ATCOV. He developed relationships with companies including Landmark Event Staffing which works with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Pitt Panthers and with Packaging Corporation of America which works with Amazon, Hershey and Scott’s Miracle Grow, that benefit those companies, ATCOV clients, the organization and the community.
“He has put together programs where the men and women can actually be working while they’re in the program,” Dr. Smith explained. They can pay their own tuition through the work program and earn experience toward a career. “We saw the practicality of what he was doing in not only giving the life-changing help to get people off the alcohol of drugs and changing their lives spiritually and getting them back on the right track, but he was putting programs in place that paid for the overhead and gave them real-world experience,” Brad said. He envisions Adult & Teen Challenge Ohio Valley and Rev. Pavlich’s operating methods being a model for other organizations to follow and emulate.
Even before he began serving as a board member, Dr. Smith believed in ATCOV’s mission. The fact that it’s Christ-centered appeals to him. He believes that’s what makes ATCOV so successful. It’s a place where clients can grow, be mentored, learn the Word of God and earn work experience as well as recover from addiction. ATCOV does more for people than rehabilitation, Dr. Smith said. “People are reuniting with their families, they’re becoming productive citizens,” he said. ATCOV is “not just getting people off of drugs. It’s changing people’s lives.” People come from across the country to ATCOV because of its reputation for success, Dr. Smith said. “People there don’t see themselves as victims. They’re victors,” he said. “And when they get through the program, they want to give back.”
Dr. Smith and his wife, Anna, have a son, Michael, 2. He also has an adult daughter, Megan. Anna, who is from Warsaw, Poland, is the author of two business books that became best sellers in her native country.
