How Brad and Alys Smith are reshaping the future of West Virginia.
If you’ve ever had the chance to hear Marshall University President Brad D. Smith speak—at a podium, on a conference stage, in a television interview, or even through a simple social media post—the topic almost doesn’t matter. You lean in and listen to every word. You walk away standing a little taller, with a few tears in your eyes or a lump in your throat. You feel sorry for those who don’t call West Virginia home.
This man makes you believe in possibilities that once felt improbable.
Brad is proof that where you start does not determine how far you can go. He’s the kid from Kenova who walked into the world’s biggest boardrooms. At the helm of Intuit, a global corporation, he made decisions that moved markets and impacted millions of lives. As one of the longest-serving CEOs in the tech industry, he led Intuit through extraordinary growth, guiding powerhouse products like TurboTax, QuickBooks, and Mint into households and small businesses across the country. But he never stopped being a West Virginia boy. He always carried Kenova with him.
On September 16, 2022, having retired from Intuit in 2018, Brad stood before Marshall University’s James E. Morrow Library—on his late father’s birthday—at his investiture as the 38th president of Marshall University and made a promise.
“One day,” he said, “Marshall students will graduate debt-free.”
It was the kind of statement that can feel aspirational in the moment, but maybe a little impractical. We all know higher education is terribly expensive, and spiraling student debt has become normalized and even accepted as a rite of passage. But when he said those words, you couldn’t help but believe him.
Three years later, that promise packs a punch.
In September 2025, Brad and his equally powerhouse wife Alys committed $50 million through their Wing 2 Wing Foundation to Marshall University to advance Marshall For All, a program designed to eliminate student debt. It is the largest personal gift ever made by a sitting university president to his own institution—and the largest single gift in Marshall’s history.
But the size of the check is not the story. The story is the intention behind it and the possibilities it unlocks.
The Power Couple
Brad may have built billion-dollar companies, but the most important partnership of his life started the old-fashioned way. On a blind date.
Alys was a young attorney, working for a law firm in Cleveland and crisscrossing the Buckeye state as she litigated major corporate defense cases. When Brad tells the story, he says it was love at first sight for him, but that it took a little more time to convince her. Eighteen months later, they wed.
Their partnership—in life and love—feels rare. Two strong, accomplished people in their own right, driven by something bigger than themselves.
Alys says, “We treat partnership like practice. We listen, we learn, and we are willing to have the honest conversations that keep us bonded and strong. We genuinely respect each other’s callings. Brad leads with vision and service. I’m driven by empowering others, especially women, to find their voice and step into their potential. As Brad always says, ‘If your dreams can be achieved alone, you aren’t dreaming big enough.’ Our dreams are big, and we are blessed to bring them to life, together—wing to wing.”
Although Alys didn’t grow up in the Mountain State, after years with Brad, she felt she had, because the area mattered so deeply to him. And when you love someone, as she says, you learn to love what shaped them. Over time, the Mountain State has become hers, too. She is a West Virginian now—by choice.
She says, “At first, West Virginia was the place Brad loved and carried with him. It was his stories, his people, his pride. But it became my home when I started building relationships here and felt the sense of community that Appalachia is known for. And it continues to deepen.”
Together, their impact on West Virginia has been both unprecedented and undeniable. And they are only just getting started. Through their Wing 2 Wing Foundation, which invests in education, entrepreneurship, and the environmental assets that define communities throughout Appalachia, they are turning big ideas into real, measurable change—pushing possibility into practice. They are changing the trajectory of West Virginia in real time. They’re not just investing in programs; they’re investing in people.
Alys says, “When we recognized how many capable people are working just as hard as anyone else yet still don’t have access to the same opportunities, that’s when ‘success’ stopped feeling like a finish line and started feeling like a responsibility: to pay it forward and help others find their path. That mindset is baked into Wing 2 Wing and into the work we’ve committed to in West Virginia.”
Designing a Different Outcome
“When I stepped down as CEO of Intuit three years ago, it became clear what my purpose was—to return to West Virginia and make a difference,” Brad reflected in Marshall Magazine in spring 2022, just after being selected as Marshall’s next president. “Anything I have ever accomplished in life is because someone at Marshall University invested in me. I consider it the ultimate privilege to be able to pay that privilege forward to the next generation. This is a dream come true.”
Marshall University, founded in 1837 and now classified as an R2 doctoral research institution, enrolls approximately 13,239 students. It has long been one of the cornerstone universities in the state. Under Smith’s leadership, it is becoming something more. It’s becoming a laboratory for new national models of learning.
Brad says, “Marshall University has charted a course to serve as a demonstration project for our state and for our nation, proving that an affordable, flexible, and achievement-oriented education goes beyond changing lives—it transforms family trees and communities for generations that follow.”
For decades, West Virginia has wrestled with familiar narratives—brain drain, economic volatility, and limited opportunities. Programs like Marshall For All, which launched in 2023, directly challenge those assumptions. It’s an effort to level the playing field in West Virginia and across Appalachia. The premise is simple. Students should be able to combine scholarships, grants, work opportunities, and family contributions in a way that removes the need for loans.
The Smiths believe that, if students can graduate without debt, they have more freedom to start businesses, pursue advanced degrees, or remain in their communities. If young professionals see viable career paths within the state, retention becomes a realistic goal.
The initiative includes two pathways. Marshall For All: Debt-Free provides a debt-free bachelor’s degree plus real-world experience for randomly selected West Virginia and metro-area students. And Marshall For All: Tuition-Free WV covers full tuition and fees for West Virginia students from families earning below $65,000.
Nearly 400 students are currently enrolled in the Debt-Free pathway, with many more participating in Tuition-Free WV. Since the program’s launch, participants have achieved grade point averages 14% higher and retention rates 10% points stronger than their peers. 70% are first-generation college students—a statistic that mirrors Brad’s own family story.
Marshall’s goal is ambitious. Expand the program over the next decade so that, by the university’s bicentennial in 2037, all students who are Pell-eligible will graduate without debt. Brad acknowledges that it is a big and bold idea that requires more than philanthropy. It requires a sea change in systems thinking.
“West Virginia has always answered our nation’s call, and we are doing so once again,” he says. “West Virginia will lead our nation in critical areas such as cybersecurity, rural health care, advanced manufacturing, energy, aviation, and entrepreneurship. These are major sectors shaping the second half of the 21st century, and they represent the strategic pillars that underpin our Marshall For All, Marshall Forever strategy.”
A Broader Vision for Impact
The Marshall For All initiative is just one of the innovative and forward-thinking programs that the Smiths have spearheaded. In fact, their lifetime giving to Marshall now exceeds $90 million—and their support goes beyond the university, too.
Prior to the $50 million gift in support of Marshall For All, previous contributions to Marshall included $10 million in 2015 to establish the Brad and Alys Family Scholarship Endowment for first-generation students and $25 million in 2018 to create the Brad D. Smith Center for Business and Innovation, which opened in January 2024. They have also supported the restoration of the university president’s home, funded various campus initiatives, purchased new band uniforms for the Marching Thunder, and even helped revive traditions such as Marshall’s iconic green football helmets.
In 2020, they committed $25 million to West Virginia University—one of the largest gifts in WVU’s history— to establish the Brad and Alys Smith Outdoor Economic Development Collaborative. From that initiative emerged a talent attraction and retention program called Ascend West Virginia. With more than $20,000 in incentives for each participant—including $12,000 in cash and two years of free outdoor recreation—Ascend spans six regions of West Virginia. Each place offers something different.
But Ascend isn’t just about attracting talent. It’s about weaving people into the fabric of the community. Ascenders are encouraged to join boards, launch businesses, and surround themselves with small-town life. It’s a relocation package wrapped up in a belonging strategy.
Since Ascend WV’s inception in 2021, more than 79,000 applications have been received from 108 countries and all 50 states. More than 1,000 new residents have chosen to call West Virginia home, 17 babies have been born, and 40% of these families have purchased homes. They have fallen in love with West Virginia, with 96% of them still here, eclipsing the retention rates for similar programs across the nation. The Ascenders each earned an average individual income of around $96,000 and are enticing friends and family to join them in the mountains of West Virginia. The economic ripple effect is significant—estimated at over $750 million in impact.
But what’s happening is bigger than numbers.
A flutist leaves New York and finds himself rollerblading through Martinsburg, sparking impromptu dance parties at stoplights. A filmmaker returns home to Jefferson County and launches projects rooted in Appalachian culture. An arts advocate in Morgantown builds programs for people living with memory loss and Parkinson’s. Two strangers in Elkins meet through co-working sessions and start a communications firm together.
And now, it’s expanding again. The Charleston area officially joined Ascend’s growing list of host communities in September, bringing the total to six regions across the state. “Ascend WV is about more than just relocation—it’s about building community, fostering new connections, and empowering people to create fuller, more meaningful lives,” says Alys. “Charleston’s vibrant culture and access to outdoor recreation make it a perfect fit for our program, and we can’t wait to welcome the next group of Ascenders who will call it home.”
In 2025, First Ascent, a program inspired by Ascend WV and powered by the Brad and Alys Smith Outdoor Economic Development Collaborative, the state’s Department of Tourism, and the Wing 2 Wing Foundation, celebrated its first anniversary.
“This isn’t a typical workforce initiative, it’s a pathway,” says Brad. “First Ascent West Virginia is designed to retain recent graduates and young professionals in remote and hybrid careers. The program is designed to stop the brain drain that has challenged our state for years, complementing the Ascend program that welcomes new West Virginians to the state. Together, they are important levers to reverse our population decline.”
First Ascent was built for students and recent graduates of Marshall and West Virginia University who want to stay and build a life in West Virginia. It gives them what they actually need to make that choice viable: professional support, remote-work certification, co-working space, mentors, success coaches, outdoor access, and a built-in community.
“For too long, we’ve watched our best and brightest pack up and leave, believing opportunity existed somewhere else,” Brad says. “First Ascent is helping to flip that narrative.”
The Ascend Program has also branched into new verticals, with Teachers Ascend to incentivize teachers to move to West Virginia to address our teacher shortage and, coming soon, Military Ascend to welcome those who wish to serve in our state’s National Guard.
While Brad has focused on building structural pathways—debt-free degrees, talent retention, economic opportunity—Alys has been equally intentional about strengthening the people who will walk those paths. In addition to her role as First Lady of Marshall and her work as a Guardian ad Litem representing foster children in abuse and neglect cases across West Virginia, she has given voice to the importance of women’s leadership, advocacy, and equity.
In 2023, she launched the Women Warriors Summit in Huntington—a one-day conference designed to inspire and equip women across the state to lead with courage and clarity. The event has drawn national voices like Soledad O’Brien, Nicole Kidman, Trisha Yearwood, and Hoda Kotb.
“I started the Women Warriors Summit because I truly believe the women of Appalachia have strengths, talents, and leadership inside them just waiting to be recognized,” Alys explains. “So often our voices go unseen or unheard, but when we gather to share our stories, our challenges, and our triumphs, we begin to see ourselves as the leaders, innovators, and change-makers we were always meant to be. This Summit is about empowerment, connection, and inspiring every woman to step boldly into her own power and potential.”
She also founded the Marshall University BOLD Leadership Academy, a program built to help rising juniors lead with confidence and purpose, giving them the tools to thrive in their careers and communities.
Both Alys and Brad believe that when you strengthen individuals, you strengthen communities.
That belief also drove the Smiths’ recent support of the Keep the Ball Rolling initiative. Through the Wing 2 Wing Foundation, they joined Shawn and Angela Ball and The Pack Family Foundation to contribute more than $1 million to public school food pantries across West Virginia. In a state where 1 in 5 children face hunger—and where funding gaps in programs like SNAP have only intensified the strain—the need is real and urgent. Because of this donation, every single public school in West Virginia received support in 2025.
Alys says, “If we truly want children to succeed, in the classroom and in life, we have to start with the basics. A child who is hungry can’t focus, can’t learn, and can’t fully believe in their own potential. Making sure our kids are fed isn’t charity; it’s foundational. When we nourish a child, we strengthen a family. And when we strengthen families, we strengthen West Virginia.”
Changing the Trajectory
There’s an underlying thread that runs through all of Alys and Brad’s initiatives, and that is: access changes trajectories. Their investments reflect a belief that opportunity and economic vitality are intertwined. They are proving that when you remove unnecessary barriers—financial, geographic, systemic—lives and communities are transformed.
A first-generation college student doesn’t just earn a degree; she rewrites the expectations for her entire family. A remote worker doesn’t just relocate; he invests, volunteers, joins a board, and builds a business. A child who isn’t hungry doesn’t just pass a test; he discovers what he’s capable of.
For too long, West Virginia’s story has been told by outsiders—often through a dark and narrow lens. Brad and Alys have chosen to reject that framing. They don’t just ask, “What needs funding?” They ask, “What needs fixing?” They invest in ideas that can grow, in models that can be replicated, and in people who will carry the work forward. By challenging institutions to rethink themselves and by refusing to accept incremental change as enough, they are creating space for a different future—one where West Virginia isn’t just surviving, it’s thriving.
“It is the dawn of a new day in West Virginia,” Brad says enthusiastically. “We remain the dreamers and doers of our forebearers, but we are dreaming bigger, working together, and showing the world that we have much to contribute to the next 250 years of this nation’s story. As is often said, the best way to predict the future is to create it, and we are doing just that—together.”
READ MORE ARTICLES FROM WV LIVING’S SPRING 2026 ISSUE
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