What moves her?

She considereth a field and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands, she planteth a vineyard. (Proverbs 31:16)

Marcia Lene Smith is the founder and CEO of the Markel’s LLC, an educational and civil rights advocacy agency, Markel’s House, a home improvement company as well as the creator of several programs: Take Me to the King Mothers’ and Daughters’ Retreat (MADR) and co-founder of Strive, Overcome and Rebound (SOAR) which encourage Brown, Black and Latinx women, girls and boys to strive.

In 1966, her parents migrated from North Carolina to New Haven, Connecticut in search of a better future for their daughters. She has spent more than 50 years living in the greater New Haven area attending public schools and working as a public servant.

She served in a variety of managerial positions for the State of Connecticut in the field of equal employment opportunity, affirmative action, diversity, inclusion and higher education for more than 30 years. Although, retired from full-time employment since 2018, she continues to serve on a local board as a vice president of administration, and as an adjunct faculty in Humanities at Housatonic Community College (HCC) where she founded the first and only HCC NAACP community college chapter. She is a member of the Greater New Haven Clergy Association and the New Haven Clergy Police Academy. She has served as the pastor of the 31-year-old Holy Ghost Deliverance III Tabernacle since 2015.

Although, we were in a pandemic, Marcia did not let the shutdown hinder her aspirations for adventure. She continued to stay on the move. She studied for her real estate license and began her new journey as a realtor with Coldwell Banker in March 2021. According to her sisters, “the world has yet to see all that has been placed in your heart to accomplish.” Joining Coldwell Banker is her next exciting chapter. She looks forward to helping others meet their dreams of home-ownership so that they can invest in their families’ future, plant fruit in their vineyards and create generational wealth.

As a mother, grandmother, author, pastor and photographer, she enjoys traveling, participating and documenting marches for Black Lives Matter and Women's Rights. She has documented theses rallies throughout Connecticut, Washington DC and Kentucky. Over the last decade, she has traveled to Europe, France, Africa and Dominican Republic to advocate for Sickle Cell Disease and to encourage women to lead. Marcia is the recipient of the 2021 Women’s History Month, ‘Unstoppable Spotlight Award’ from the Village of Faith, Richmond, VA and the “International Women’s Month: Women Who Inspire 2021 Award” from the Rebecca Rose Fine Portraits, Colchester, CT. In addition, Smith holds several degrees and certificates in Journalism, Women’s Studies, Government and Religion, Early Childhood, and Higher Education. She, her two adult children and six grandchildren reside in the greater New Haven community. What moves Marcia is that she realizes how important home-ownership is towards creating stability, a sense of being, and legacy.