Tara Smith, Professor, Kent Campus, College of Public Health
Tara Smith, Ph.D., is a professor in the College of Public Health. She has a long list of accomplishments as a distinguished lecturer and as the author of an outstanding number of academic publications, as well as 35 popular press publications on COVID-19. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, her work has primarily shifted from academic publications to pandemic response and communication. Smith has been invaluable in helping the university and other organizations (including churches and other community groups) understand scientific developments around COVID-19 and respond appropriately.
She has served as an expert source for hundreds of interviews over the last two years, in numerous print, radio and television outlets, including NPR, CNN, MSNBC, The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Atlantic. Smith also regularly shares articles and scientific discussion with more than 132,000 followers on social media.
She has mentored many graduate and undergraduate researchers, including one student whose undergraduate research in Smith’s lab helped the student win a prestigious Goldwater Scholarship.
In 2021, Smith was recognized among the world’s top 2% of scientists, based on citation metrics, and received the Kent State Outstanding Research and Scholarship Award.
Since arriving at Kent State in 2013, she has published 65 peer-reviewed papers, a rate of eight per year, with 106 total career peer-reviewed academic manuscripts and book chapters. She co-edited an award-winning 2017 book, “Ebola’s Message: Public Health and Medicine in the 21st Century,” and served as an American Society for Microbiology Distinguished Lecturer from 2015-2017.