Dr. Smith-Olinde has worked in higher education since 1995, with one 18-month ‘detour’ to work with the Infant Hearing Program at the Arkansas Department of Health. Her role in this project has been to provide ‘technical’ information about the auditory system, audiology evaluations, and personal amplification and assistive devices. Dr. Smith-Olinde performs research that seeks to understand what effects hearing loss may have on an individual’s ability to process sound, particularly speech sounds.