Professor Smith is also the Project Director for the United States Department of Justice, National Institute of Corrections Cooperative Agreement on Addressing Staff Sexual Misconduct with Offenders. In November, 2003, Prof. Smith was appointed to the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission by the United States House of Representatives Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi (D. CA). Prior to her faculty appointment at the Washington College of Law, Prof. Smith was the Senior Counsel for Economic Security at the National Women's Law Center and Director of the Center's Women in Prison Project and Child and Family Support Project. Prof. Smith is a 1984 graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, and a magna cum laude graduate of Spelman College in 1980.