People Directory

Dr. Smith worked for many years in the Michigan Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Program (MSHS), a multilingual early childhood education program for children of migrant farmworkers. This work launched her career in early childhood education. Her affiliations with this program led to national service as a consultant/trainer on the Head Start English Language Learners Project 2007-2009 with the Community Development Institute in Denver, Colorado and she has served as a member of the National Advisory Council for the Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Collaboration Office since 2018. Her research on teaching practices, parent engagement, and food insecurity in Migrant and Seasonal Head Start has been well cited by national and international scholars in the field of early childhood education, teacher education, and immigration studies. Her second area of expertise is with farm to school and school gardens. Dr. Smith’s leadership was instrumental in starting the School of Education Urban Garden at Purdue Fort Wayne in 2019, a partnership with Purdue Extension of Allen County. The garden has brought numerous community members including school teachers, children, Master Gardeners, faculty, students and others around the shared interest of gardening, growing food and taking the classroom outdoors. Currently, the garden partners with the PFW Food Pantry to provide fresh healthy local foods that are PFW grown to students and community members. Dr. Smith received her PhD in Child and Family Ecology from The College of Social Science at Michigan State University and holds a Master Degree in Literacy Education from The College of Education at Michigan State University. She speaks Spanish as a Second Language and previously resided in Mexico as an expatriate.