Deborah Smith grew up on a sheep farm just outside of Harrisonburg in Rockingham County. She attended Virginia Tech where her time was split between the architecture studio and volunteering with the Virginia Tech Rescue Squad as an EMT-B. After graduating from Virginia Tech in 2011 with a Bachelor of Architecture degree, she returned to the area and spent the next year working a variety of jobs that included time spent at a local consignment store, a greenhouse, and a blackberry farm.
Deborah joined The Gaines Group, PLC at the Harrisonburg office in August 2012 and has loved being able to work on a variety of projects in and around Harrisonburg from custom residential homes to industrial warehouses. As continuous learning and improving is important to Deborah, she enrolled in the Eastern Mennonite University Master of Business Administration for the Common Good and graduated in 2016. With the completion of her MBA, Deborah set her sights on attaining her architectural license. She accomplished this goal in May 2018 after 9 months of studying and exam slaying and is excited to now be able to call herself a real architect.
Deborah lives in Harrisonburg and spends time attending Virginia Tech football games and local music festivals, planning new travel adventures, gardening, and spending time with her family, friends, and dog, Lucy.