Tywanna Smith

Dr. Tywanna Smith is an award-winning sports manager, award-winning filmmaker, speaker, and former professional basketball player. For the past 16+ years, she has served as a financial and business advisor to over 50 NBA, NFL, WNBA, Euro-League, and Chinese Basketball Association athletes as President of The Athlete's Nexus. The best-selling author has published two books [Surviving the Lights] and [Plan TOO: Guiding Your Athlete to Wealth & the Best Mental Health]. Her first book, “Surviving the Lights: A Professional Athlete’s Playbook to Avoiding the Curse,” has been featured at the L.A. Times Festival of Books, the Black Student-Athlete Summit, and the NFL’s Careers in Football Forum.

Dr. Smith is also an executive producer for Ballin' Abroad [2022], an international sports documentary chronicling the lives of American athletes who play abroad. Dr. Smith has been recognized as one of Ole Miss' Top 40 Under 40 Alumni and Mississippi Business Journal’s Top 50 Under 40 Rising Business Leaders. In addition, she has been featured in Forbes, NerdWallet, and HuffPost. Dr. Smith earned her doctorate from The University of Memphis, where she researched effective professional development programming for athletes. She earned her MBA from Ole Miss. Learn more at www.tywannasmith.com.