Jessica Bishop-Smith

Jessica Bishop-Smith is a Pennsylvania licensed social worker, educator, and clinical practitioner with over a decade of experience in child welfare, mental health, and trauma-informed care. She earned her MSW from Temple University in 2015 and has since built a distinguished career that bridges direct clinical practice, higher education, and program leadership.

Jessica currently works as a Clinical Director at Broad Street Love where she oversees case management services for the unhoused community in Philadelphia. In addition to her work at Broad Street Love, Jessica is an Emergency Department Social Worker at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia providing emergent care and crisis intervention to children and families.

Her previous clinical roles include psychiatric social work at both Bryn Mawr Hospital and Fairmount Behavioral Health, where she specialized in discharge planning, therapeutic interventions, and continuity of care for individuals experiencing acute mental health challenges.

In parallel with her clinical practice, Jessica has served as an adjunct professor at Temple University and LaSalle University since 2019, teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in mental health, social policy, substance abuse, child welfare, and social entrepreneurship. Her commitment to educating future social workers is rooted in real-world expertise and a strong focus on diversity, trauma, and community impact.

Prior to her current clinical focus, she held several leadership positions in the child welfare field, at local non-profits throughout the city. In these roles, she led strategic planning, supervised multidisciplinary teams, and developed programming to improve permanency outcomes for children and families- especially in kinship and adoption services.

As a certified trauma-informed care professional and the founder of Impact Train Connect, LLC, she delivers training and workshops for social service professionals, educators, and community organizations. Her areas of training expertise include trauma-informed approaches, generational trauma, transformational leadership,effective communication, boundaries and ethical practices, and culturally responsive practices in child welfare.

Her career is defined by a passion for equity, healing, and empowerment—both in the classroom and the communities she serves.