Caroline Blair‑Smith

Caroline has worked for Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) in a variety of roles over the last 17 years, most recently as Deputy Chief Administrative Officer, Corporate Services (DCAO).  After graduating from Dalhousie University with a Bachelor of Arts with an advanced major in History in 1993, Caroline started her career at Coca-Cola before joining HRM in 2005.  Caroline began her public service career with HRM in the Human Resources department, spending 13 years in various roles working with teams across the organization on conflict resolution, labour relations, talent management, training initiatives, etc.  In 2018, Caroline became the Senior Advisor to the Chief Administrative Officer, providing strategic counsel on corporate initiatives and managing numerous special projects.  She gained the reputation as a respected and effective leader with a corporate vision and the ability to advance projects and initiatives. Caroline moved on to become the Executive Director of People, Communications and Information Technology, building strong foundational services to support the future needs of the organization.

In the newly created position of DCAO, Corporate Services, Caroline is providing leadership to various business units including Human Resources and Corporate Communications, Information Technology, Legal, Finance and Corporate and Customer Services, ensuring that they provide high quality customer service to internal stakeholders and the residents of HRM.

Caroline volunteers on Dal’s Insight Circle of Dal Alumni providing feedback on a wide range of topics to support and guide initiatives at the University.  Over the years she’s also volunteered with ISANS as a mentor and coach assisting new immigrants to find employment.  She recently moved closer to downtown Halifax and enjoys walking to work - rain or shine.  She also enjoys travelling with her husband and two children (her dogs keep her busy as well!).

Q: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and about your studies at Dalhousie?

A: I am from Halifax, or at least I’ve lived in Halifax for a long, long time. My family are Newfoundlanders but have been in Halifax for a while. And I actually started at King’s College in the Foundation Year Program (FYP). I was thinking about studying journalism. My sister had just gone into journalism. But one of the things the FYP does for a lot of people is it instills a real love of history. And so, if you were interested in history before, and then you go through the FYP, it is very hard to pull yourself out of it! So, that’s how I ended up deciding to major in History and move to Dalhousie.

I tell my kids all the time – you have to pick a degree where every day you think “this is fantastic.” Maybe not during exams or paper writing, but overall, you should feel excited and happy to go to classes and learn. That’s how it was for me. I was completely fascinated in all my classes. They changed my perspective on the world.

Q: When you were at Dalhousie, what was your area of research?

A: I had absolutely thought that I was going to focus on Russian history. I took a number of Russian history courses. But in the end, I ended up focusing on German and British history. But it was hard for me to choose! There were so many wonderful professors - I would like to have gone through and taken every History course available. Every time you went into a new course it was just like, “oh my god, this is so interesting!”

Q: What did you do after you graduated?

A: I had a really great time in my degree, and when I graduated from my undergraduate degree, I wanted to pursue a Master's in History but ultimately decided to take a few years to work and never went back.

I took some PT education courses and eventually got hired by Eaton’s – that shows how old I am! I got hired into an Eaton’s management role and that led me into a lot of training courses and taught people how to have good customer service and all that stuff. Eventually, that sparked an interest in Human Resources, which was the real start of my career.

Q: What is your role with the city of Halifax?

A: When I first came to the city 17 years ago, I came here as a senior HR consultant. I worked in a lot of the different business units. It was a great start.

Today I am the Deputy Chief Administrative Officer.  I'm responsible for the corporate services side of the house – finance, IT, HR, facilities, all support functions.

Q: Do you find that your studies have helped you throughout your career?

A: I think that the History degree taught me how to write at another level. That can be the basis for just about any career. I tell mentees that all the time – don’t let somebody tell you not to take an arts degree because you will come out of there able to express yourself verbally and with writing skills that others won’t have. You’ll rise to the top because of that.

That was a real boost in terms of my career. If you’re going into Human Resources as I did, you need to be able to communicate and write. I look at a History degree as a fantastic basis for any career.

When you get yourself through any degree, that increases your confidence. You believe that you can do things that you didn’t before.

Q: Reflecting on your time at Dalhousie, do you have any particularly fond memories that stand out?

A: I was very shy and a somewhat sheltered individual when I went to Dalhousie. You won’t stay that way there. There’s great camaraderie there—certainly in the History department. There was a huge sense of belonging. It was a really great time in my life to have that feeling – a sense of belonging. You have strong friends and professors who cared. I hear all the time “oh Dalhousie is so big. Nobody cares about you there. You shouldn’t go there.” I never had that experience. I know in History it didn’t feel that way at all. It was a caring and positive environment.

Q: For future graduates of the History program, do you have any further words of advice?

A: You’ve got to believe that you have gained necessary and transferable skills. You don’t necessarily have to go into a career that is focused on history. It’s great if you can and want to – I often wish I had – but you don’t have to. You just have to believe that the skills you’ve gained are marketable.

I did several jobs before I got into my first real HR job, which was with Coca Cola. People find it interesting that I walked out of a History degree into a job with Coca Cola, but it is because I believed I could. I was confident I could do it. I spent many years there and had an exciting, fabulous career before I went with the city – which has also been exciting.

Q: If you were ever to come back to your history studies, what would you hope to research?

A: I’ve often thought about it! My own children are in university now – my youngest is in engineering and my oldest is just graduating from astrophysics. They ask me this question a lot. I definitely want to go back – there is just no time in my life!

I think I would still want to pursue World War Two German history. I think that there was a love for me in that and I see the world still promoting the kind of hatred and societal issues that I fear could lead us back there. I think it’s a really important area to study.

Taking a History degree at that young age really makes you appreciate the privilege you have. To live in a place like Halifax and to study freely -- I feel so lucky.