Contact: Crystal Drake, Office of Strategic Communications
“It’s game day, every day!”
Collette V. Smith was in coach mode for Tuskegee’s recent Lyceum event.
The fireside chat featured Tuskegee alum Smith, the first woman coach in the NFL and student moderator, Richard Scott, chapter president of A²MEND and SGA Chief of Staff, a sophomore Psychology major from Largo, Maryland. Scott is also a member of the Tuskegee University football team.
The event was the second in the 2026-2027 Lyceum Series, Reliving the Black Renaissance: Celebrating History, Culture and Dialogue through Voices that Inspire.
Through the Lyceum Engagement Series, Tuskegee reaffirms its commitment to intellectual inquiry and civic engagement by connecting students and the broader community with distinguished voices whose experiences inspire critical thinking and informed leadership.
Smith made history in 2017 as the first African American woman to coach in the NFL when she joined the New York Jets as a defensive backs coach during their training camp. Smith is also a former player herself – she was a member of the New York Sharks in the Independent Women’s Football League. Smith founded
Believe N You Inc., a nonprofit focused on empowering girls to develop positive self-esteem through team sports, particularly at-risk teens in underserved and marginalized communities.
In his greetings, Dr. Mark A. Brown, President and CEO, said Smith is “a trailblazer who once sat where you sit and decided no matter what the world might think, the glass ceiling would not stop her.”
He noted that Smith’s accomplishments represent an important example of what Tuskegee, and all brands, are judged by – the products they produce.
“Our students are the very best thing I can ever say about Tuskegee. You leave here to change the world. You leave ready to compete and to come out on top,” said Dr. Brown.
Scott steered the conversation to a variety of topics, beginning with a question about what led Smith to Tuskegee.
“The greatness!” she said boldly. “The history, the excellence, so many great things led me here.”
Smith urged students to be bold in their academic pursuits, not to fear needing help or asking question, and to put themselves in front, literally close to the front in classrooms but also to seek out proximity to opportunities.
“Step to the front, be in the front row,” she explained. “There is something magical when you take a chance on yourself.”
Scott also asked Smith to unpack her transition from the New York Jets into a non-profit founder, advocate and author.
Smith shared a pivotal conversation with her father.
After earning her role with the New York Jets, which she had tenaciously pursued, she called her father who joined her in her joy over the news.
“I kept saying to him ‘can you believe it?” she recalled. “And then finally he said, ‘Yes, I can believe it and I would be more proud of you if you believed it.”
Smith said that moment not only radically changed her perspective but would later inspire the name of her non-profit.
“You’re not waiting for someone else to invite you to the party,” she said to students. “The onus is on you.”
She further made that point by encouraging students to be “game-changers” and engaged citizens as registered voters.
“Who is 18 in the audience?” she asked as hands went up. She shared that she registered to vote for the first time on Tuskegee’s campus, and has served in local polling stations.
“Tuskegee is a place of action,” she said.
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