Kristoffer Smith’s path to becoming Harris County Department of Education’s new director of communications and creative services didn’t begin with a camera or in the classroom, but on the basketball court.  

A scholarship opportunity opened the door to college, where he planned to study architecture. When Smith discovered the program wasn’t offered at Freed-Hardeman University, he was forced to reconsider his future. That moment of uncertainty led him to explore film, sparking a creative interest that would eventually shape his career in storytelling.  

“I took the Holocaust film class where we dove into the nuances of the filmmaker’s choices, the soundtracks, the production and how it all worked together to inform the viewers,” Smith described. “We were watching films and documentaries, but we were really analyzing what it took to build it and tell the stories from unique perspectives. I fell in love with creating stories.”  

Smith earned a Bachelor of Mass Media before enrolling at the Academy of Art University, where he gained a Master of Fine Arts in motion pictures & television. He spent six years teaching in the classroom, sharing his newfound knowledge with the next generation and exposing students to the magic of film, cameras and storytelling. Smith began working with the communications teams in the summers, which shifted his perspective.  

“Seeing how they connected the stories to the purpose of our schools, and the other side of education that I wasn’t as privy to being in the classroom, I enjoyed it a lot,” he recalled.  

That realization set the stage for a career transition spanning more than 15 years, during which he worked his way up from multimedia and video coordinator in Fort Bend ISD to Director of Communications. Most recently, Smith served as the Executive Director of Communications for the College of Natural Science and Mathematics at the University of Houston.  

Now at HCDE, he brings a clear philosophy to his work: “Inspire, inform and entertain.” Smith believes that effective communication is more than sharing information. It’s about creating connections in an increasingly crowded digital world.  

“There are so many things that take our attention away because everybody has the internet in their pocket,” he said. “We must find a way to break through, what I call noise, to make them hear our music and message. That’s my ultimate goal.”