Professor - Epidemiology
College of Public Health
MS in Clinical Epidemiology
Dr. Smith joined the faculty of Kent State University College of Public Health in August 2013. An Ohio native, she previously spent nine years in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Iowa College of Public Health, where she directed the College’s Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases and attained the rank of Associate Professor with tenure. She completed postdoctoral training in molecular epidemiology at the University of Michigan prior to beginning her professorship at the University of Iowa. She obtained her Ph.D. at the University of Toledo and her BS in Biology from Yale University.
Dr. Smith’s research generally focuses on zoonotic infections (infections which are transferred between animals and humans). She was the first to identify livestock-associated strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in the United States, and has pioneered the investigation of this organism in the U.S. Dr. Smith has published over 80 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters. (Full publication list can be found at Google Scholar; a full CV including presentations can be found here). She has received over $3 million in funding from AHRQ, USDA, and NIOSH to carry out these studies. She has presented her research at numerous national and international platforms, including talks on Capitol Hill on the topic of agriculture and antibiotic resistance. Her work has been profiled in many major publications, including Science, Nature, and The New York Times, as well as in "Superbug: the Fatal Menace of MRSA" by Maryn McKenna and "Pig Tales: an Omnivore's Quest for Sustainable Meat" by Barry Estabrook.
Dr. Smith is also very active in science communication and outreach. She has maintained a science blog since 2005, and has written books on Group A Streptococcus, Group B Streptococcus, and Ebola. A second book on Ebola, "Ebola's Message," was published by MIT Press in 2016. She also writes about infectious disease for several national sites, pens a column for SELF.com, and serves as a member of the advisory board of the Zombie Research Society. She lives in rural Ohio with her partner and her three children.
Education
Ph.D., Microbiology, University of Toledo, 2002
BS, Biology, Yale University, 1998