About
Meet the Team
Doug Smith
Managing Partner
Doug Smith, MSSW is a leadership development trainer, coach, facilitator, and Author of The Path of Rocks and Thorns: Leadership Lessons from a Prison Cell.
He has more than 12 years’ experience in mental health and justice policy, as a policy expert at the Texas House of Representative and later as Senior Policy Analyst for Texas Center on Justice and Equity. He has more than eight years’ experience serving as an Adjunct Professor of Social Policy at the University of Texas at Austin.
Doug specializes in developing the leadership capacity of people with life histories of mental illness, past trauma, and incarceration. A foundation of his work is partnering with organizations to create trauma-informed leadership practices. Doug also works with communities across Texas to prevent the arrest and incarceration of people with mental illness.
Doug earned his master’s in social work from the University of Texas at Austin. He graduated from Erickson Coaching International and earned his certification in Trauma-Informed Coaching.
Doug also has lived through mental illness, substance use disorder, and incarceration, and these experiences drive his passion to help people achieve their fullest potential.
He is a husband and proud father and stepfather of three adult children and three rescue pups.
Shelley MacAllister
Partner
Shelley MacAllister, LMSW, is a marketing and business strategist. She brings 25 years of experience spanning public health, nonprofit leadership, and community systems development.
Throughout most of her career, Shelley has worked at the macro and mezzo levels of social work. Shelley served as Senior Product Manager at the American Cancer Society, where she managed a national portfolio of public health programs and tools. In this role, she oversaw the product lifecycle, created and delivered training, supported field staff across the country, and actively contributed to closing key deals. At Unite Us, she built technology-powered networks with nonprofits and public agencies, excelling in engagement strategy, training and data-driven storytelling. She also deeply valued the recent opportunity to work directly with caregivers, supporting them as they navigated senior care decisions.
Guided by her core values of empathy, connection, and collaboration, Shelley is dedicated to helping mission-driven organizations grow with authenticity and impact. She is excited to focus full-time on D-Degree, where she has seen firsthand the transformational power of Doug’s leadership and message. Shelley feels honored to share this mission and inspire others to live and lead with courage and heart.
Outside of work, she is a proud wife, mom, and dog lover who enjoys keeping her garden alive, hiking in the mountains, and traveling to find cooler weather with her husband.
“Doug's approach is gentle but firm, and he can gracefully get me to my own conclusions. I appreciate most that he is guiding and facilitating rather than directing and that he helps me to see my own power and hear my own intuition rather than telling me what I should do next. I always feel very supported and respected, like he is meeting me where I am, but also that he is pushing me to be my best and to own both my successes and opportunities for growth.”
—Laura LeBlanc