Brinkley Smithers, daughter of Christopher B. and Nikki Smithers, was elected Vice President of the Smithers Foundation at its Annual Meeting in 2022. She served as Secretary from 2019-2022. Brinkley Smithers is attending NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts for film.
While volunteering at the Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (LICADD), when she was a high school senior, Brinkley zeroed in on an idea of writing a script for a PSA video on the opioid crisis, titled “Hey Charlie.” The project came to life. The impactful film, “Hey Charlie” is also the centerpiece of a broader effort, titled #StoptheSpiral. LICADD honored Brinkley Smithers with the Community Champions Award for the creation of “Hey Charlie” PSA video at the 2018 Annual Adele C. Smithers Angel Ball. The award reads, “In grateful appreciation of your creativity, vision, and dedication to recovery.” She also received the “Suffolk County Citation of Achievement” from the Suffolk County, New York, Legislature and the District Attorney’s office for her vision and motivation to combat the substance abuse crisis on Long Island. “Hey Charlie” was nominated at the Cannes Lions International Film Festival and received a Clio Health Award in 2018.
Brinkley Smithers is a youth designated representative of OCCAM (Observatory for Cultural and Audiovisual Communication in the Mediterranean and in the World) to the United Nations Department of Global Communications.