Scholar of the Month
Gregory Smith
Professor of Human Development and Family Studies
College of Education, Health and Human Services
2001-present
Gregory Smith is a professor of human development and family studies and director of the Human Development Center in the School of Lifespan Development and Educational Sciences in the College of Education, Health and Human Services. His primary research focus is on caregiving issues within aging families. He has authored more than 60 publications and has edited four books, including the 2012 volume of The Annual Review of Gerontology and Geriatrics titled “Emerging Perspectives on Resilience in Adulthood and Later Life.”
Smith has received more than $4 million of extramural research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), including a current R01 project titled “Comparing Interventions to Improve the Well-Being of Custodial Grandfamilies” funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research. He also has served as a member of numerous scientific review panels for NIH, the Alzheimer’s Association and the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. He is currently a standing member of the Community Level Health Promotion Study Section of NIH.
Smith chairs the Aging Research Symposium Committee at Kent State, which involves faculty from eight colleges. The committee is currently planning a symposium on “New Directions in Chronic Illness Self-Management With Older Adults and their Families” on Oct. 28-29, 2015.
Smith is a fellow of both the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) and the American Psychological Association, editor of the International Journal of Aging and Human Development, consulting editor for Developmental Psychology and serves on the GSA Publications Committee. In 2006, he was named Outstanding Researcher of the Year by the Ohio Association of Gerontology and Education.
Before coming to Kent State, Smith served as research associate in the Ringel Institute of Gerontology at the University at Albany, and then as a tenured faculty member in the Department of Human Development at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Smith received a Doctor in Education in Human Development, with a specialization in psychology of adult development and aging from the University of Rochester; a Master of Science in psychology from Villanova University and a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from the State University of New York at Brockport.
About Kent State’s Scholar of the Month
Kent State’s Scholar of the Month recognizes faculty researchers and scholars whose recent work has had an important impact on their professional fields and has brought exposure to the university. Each month, a different college will have the opportunity to nominate a researcher/scholar for this recognition. There is also a month when a faculty member from the Regional Campuses will be featured.
The selection process is in the hands of the dean and his or her colleagues and faculty. Hence, this is recognition by the person’s college colleagues that is then taken up by the university. The deans communicate the person’s name to the Division of Research and Sponsored Programs for recognition as Scholar of the Month.