William “Will” E. Smith III, Sr. Associate Director of Advising for the College of Arts + Sciences at Indiana University Bloomington, has been recognized as the 2025 recipient of the Outstanding Advisor Administrator Award as part of NACADA’s Global Awards program. Will has been a member of College advising for over 15 years, having first served as a frontline advisor and then, in 2016, moved into a leadership role. Since 2023, he has helmed the training program for new College advisors and has built a comprehensive New Advisor Training program over a new advisor’s first year. He is also a two-term past president of IUBAAC. Additionally, he has published in the NACADA Review and elsewhere on topics related to academic advising.
Will is a first-generation college graduate and originally came to Bloomington to do a PhD in Religious Studies, which he earned in 2010. He has worked full-time for IU ever since. He has been active in local politics since 2017. Presently he is pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing (poetry) through IUB’s English Department as a part-time student. He lives with his dog Buddy, whom he adopted from the Owen County Humane Society in 2021. For fun, he enjoys history, reading, writing, hiking, movies, and a good game of cribbage.
