Dept Chair · NSF Co-PI · ex-VMware

From music
classroom to
AI lab.

I study what AI is doing to entry-level IT work — and rebuild community-college curriculum around the answer.

Department Chair of Network, Cybersecurity, and Cloud at Central Piedmont. Co-PI on the NSF GAIT grant building one of NC's first associate-degree AI programs. Graduate faculty at UNC Charlotte. Honors-program adjunct at Wingate.

Book me to speak → Read recent writing
  • Central Piedmont
  • UNC Charlotte
  • Wingate Honors
  • NSF ATE GAIT
Research focus AI × Entry-Level Workforce Dr. Frazier A. Smith
Dr. Frazier A. Smith
As featured
in & on
01 / Speaking

Eight talks I give.

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Higher Ed · CTE

Building one of NC's first associate-degree AI programs

The full talk runs 45 minutes plus Q&A. The 25-minute version drops the case-study section.

 Workforce · Research

What AI is doing to the entry-level IT job — and what to teach instead

Field data and ongoing research on how generative AI is reshaping help desk, junior cloud, and analyst roles. Where the entry-level door is narrowing, where it's widening, and what curriculum has to change before the cohort graduates.

 Ethics · AI · Workshop NSF

Would You Pull the Lever? Ethical dilemmas in the age of AI

This workshop was developed under NSF ATE award #2500901.

 Instructional Design

LLMs, RAG, and agentic development as instructional-design tools

Practical workflows for instructional designers — beyond "ChatGPT writes my objectives." Concrete RAG patterns over course documents, agentic pipelines for course generation, and where the human still has to sit in the loop.
02 / Testimonials

What people say.

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Frazier has a great ability to connect with the training classes that he presides over. He keeps the presentation and material focused, and ensures engagement. He is very professional and comes to the table with a lot of energy.
DL Dan Lawrie VP of Operations · SnapAV
An intelligent and personable leader who is not afraid to roll up his sleeves and work alongside his leaders, peers, and direct reports. He fosters an open and supportive work environment based on mutual trust and empowerment.
MA Martin Addison, CISSP Instructional Design · Direct report (VMware era)
Frazier has an innate ability to remain calm under pressure and extremely supportive in trying times. He brings a genuine enthusiasm and drive to a whole team. To say that you'll get something good by having Frazier on your team is an understatement.
LB Linus Bourque Tech Trainer & Curriculum Lead · ex-VMware
Frazier was an integral part of our L&D team. His desire to understand the business needs and superb technical skills combined to deliver high-quality, value-added deliverables that always achieved project objectives.
AR Ann Rockett Director of Store Process · Belk, Inc.
03 / About

Music classroom to AI lab.

Frazier Smith conducting a music ensemble — a literal music classroom, before the AI lab
Classroom → Enterprise → Classroom

Through college, while majoring in music education, I worked in campus ed-tech. My first job after graduating kicked off a decade in enterprise instructional design and technical training — building and delivering courses for working engineers. I came back to higher ed by adjuncting at a community college, grew that into a full-time role, then department chair, and circled back to my alma mater to teach applied AI.

"I left a classroom to learn what to teach. I came back to teach it."

Along the way: instructional design and training roles at Belk, CPI Security, SnapAV, and Anomali; senior leadership at VMware, Broadcom, and Fast Lane — including a 12-person VMware content team whose work drove $40M in annual customer revenue; and now chair of an IT department at Central Piedmont spanning Cybersecurity, Cloud & Networking, and IT Support — alongside graduate teaching at UNC Charlotte and Honors-program AI at Wingate.

Read the full story →

04 / Writing

Recent posts.

All writing
May 2026

What a music-education degree actually transferred to IT leadership (and what it didn't)

The popular version of this career-pivot story is the inspirational one. The honest version is more specific, and more useful.

 4 min May 2026

What I learned standing up an xAPI lab system for a CC cybersecurity program

Three months in. Cost, infrastructure, schema regrets, and what to start with if you're considering this yourself.

 3 min May 2026

Why a 1967 thought experiment is still the right tool for AI ethics

A long-form essay drawn from the NSF-funded "Would You Pull the Lever?" workshop. AI ethics doesn't need newer frameworks. It needs older ones, applied better.

 4 min
05 / Teaching

Where I teach.

All courses
Central Piedmont
Dept Chair · Instructor
  • CIS-110 Introduction to Computers
  • CSC-214 Artificial Intelligence II
  • CTI-120 Network and Security Foundation
  • NOS-120 Linux/UNIX Single User
  • NOS-220 Linux/UNIX Administration II
UNC Charlotte
Graduate Faculty
  • DSBA 6190 Cloud Computing for Data Analytics
  • ITIS 3300 Software Requirements
  • ITIS 3310 Software Architecture and Design
  • ITIS 6342 IT Project Management
Wingate
Adjunct · Honors
  • Applied Innovation (AI) for Honors
  • Digital Wellness & AI