With more than 25 years of experience as a public relations practitioner, communications manager and journalist, Dr. Smith has worked in the nonprofit, government and media sectors. She has been an adjunct professor at Morgan since 2014 and has taught at The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars, Montgomery College, Prince George's Community College and the Laurel College Center. Dr. Smith is the former Chief Operating Officer (COO) for the Greater Washington Urban League (GWUL), an 80-year-old nonprofit social services and civil rights organization that is a member agency of the United Way of the National Capital Area. During her tenure at the GWUL, she led the marketing team for a fund development campaign that helped to raise over $4 million for a new headquarters building. While at the GWUL, she also instituted a year-round internship program that engaged students from across the nation.

Dr. Smith was the senior communications manager for the District Government's Department of Human Rights, an enforcement agency that handled civil rights investigations in the city. Some of the noted cases included those on women's rights and dress codes for the District's public safety employees, which received national media attention. She also worked as a consultant in creative services for a major public relations firm in Washington, DC. As a daily newspaper reporter and editor in Charlotte, NC, she covered education, the courts and local government. She has been the recipient of various awards including the Smart COO Award from Smart CEO Magazine DC in 2011. Her dissertation was entitled Fatherhood Public Service Messages Targeted to African-American Men: Content and Perception.

Currently, Dr. Smith serves as faculty advisor to The Strategy Shop, the Strategic Communication Department's student-run public relations agency lab.

Research Interests:

Strategic Communication and Engaging Multicultural Publics; Public Relations and Public Policy; and Ethics in Strategic Communications