{"id":35024,"date":"2018-09-27T10:58:08","date_gmt":"2018-09-27T16:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=35024"},"modified":"2019-07-03T09:21:30","modified_gmt":"2019-07-03T15:21:30","slug":"faculty-profile-jessi-l-smith-leads-the-way-speaking-her-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=35024","title":{"rendered":"Faculty profile: Jessi L. Smith leads the way, speaking her mind"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jessi<\/a><\/p>\n

Before the sun comes up, Jessi Smith and her family wake to her pet bird squawking. She fetches him from his cage and returns to bed, snuggling him in her palm while the dogs pile in.<\/p>\n

Smith got Heron, named after her favorite bird in the wild, 14 years ago. He sits atop a perch in the shower, soaking up steam. \u201cHe wishes I took longer showers, but I\u2019m very water conscious,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Heron eats breakfast with the family, and before Smith leaves, she puts on tunes for him, usually country. Then she heads to her new job as associate vice chancellor of research at UCCS, where a class she took as a sophomore 24 years ago changed the course of her life.<\/p>\n

During introductory psychology, she became fascinated that human behavior could often be predicted through certain factors. \u201cI had no idea that you could quantify and predict human experience,\u201d she said. \u201cI thought, \u2018Wow, what an amazing superpower.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

She switched her major from communications to psychology. A social psychology class locked in her path when the professor handed back an exam and told her, \u201cYou did very well on this. Most students don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI left going, \u2018Wait, what? I\u2019m good at this?\u2019 When I look back, it was such an important moment,\u201d she said. \u201cI was like, \u2018Well then, social psychology is clearly for me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Now she\u2019s returned to her alma mater as a psychology professor and seasoned researcher. Her focus is growing campus research in the university\u2019s first full-time position for it.<\/p>\n

Smith, 43, is familiar with leading the way. Before joining UCCS in August, she spent 12 years at Montana State University, where she made history twice in the psychology department\u2014once as the first woman to earn tenure and then again as the first woman to be promoted to full professor. \u201cI rustled a lot of feathers and changed a lot of culture,\u201d she said, \u201cand I\u2019m glad about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith spent her early years in Colorado Springs, born to young parents, ages 17 and 20, who divorced around her first birthday. At age nine, she went to live with her maternal grandparents in southern California.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy grandma was a stay-at-home mom, so I had a full-time caregiver who could help me go to choir practice and drive me to school. I could not have gotten that here,\u201d she said. \u201cMy mother worked full time. We took the bus. We ate TV dinners that we would share. She was a super-young person. I\u2019m really grateful how that all worked out.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a fifth-grade class assignment called \u201cAll About Me,\u201d Smith penned her future: \u201cI\u2019m going to grow up and be a computer scientist who works for Xerox.\u201d That shifted in high school when she took her first computer science class. She was one of just a few female students. \u201cAnd I was the only eccentric person in the class,\u201d she said. \u201cI looked around and I didn\u2019t feel like I belonged.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 18, she moved back to Colorado Springs to attend UCCS.<\/h2>\n

She quickly made lifelong friends during what is now called the\u00a0<\/b>Gateway Program Seminar\u00a0<\/b>for freshmen. \u201cWithout that program, as a first-generation student, I would\u2019ve just been lost,\u201d said Smith, who later served as a student mentor for it.<\/p>\n

Once she became a research assistant in the psychology department, she couldn\u2019t stop, often spending nights and weekends in the lab, helping professors, undergrads and graduate students. She found where she belonged.<\/p>\n

In 1997, she received a bachelor of arts in psychology, summa cum laude. At the University of Utah, she earned two more psychology degrees, both with specialization in social psychology: a master of science in 2000 and a Ph.D. in 2002.<\/p>\n

As a social psychologist, she studies how people are affected by others and by their social and physical environments. That\u2019s not to be confused with a clinical psychologist who offers therapy and treatments. \u201cI make that very clear,\u201d Smith said. \u201cPeople are disappointed when they sit next to me on an airplane.\u201d<\/p>\n

She may measure whether feedback is motivating or discouraging based on how it\u2019s worded, an example highlighted by her professor\u2019s comments when he handed back her exam. \u201cIf he would have said, \u2018You got a 98,\u2019 period, it wouldn\u2019t have meant as much,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

She did extensive research at MSU that included implementing a National Science Foundation ADVANCE grant to broaden female participation in STEM and social behavioral science fields. Under her leadership, MSU saw a 66% gain in the number of women faculty hired and she put programs in place to help raise women\u2019s research funding in ways that significantly narrowed the gender-gap.<\/p>\n

Smith, who was also special assistant to the provost, ran the Motivation and Diversity research lab. She has more than 80 publications and has given roughly 160 presentations to both professional societies and community members.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am definitely a stick-your-neck-out kind of person.\u201d<\/h2>\n

Early during her career at MSU, a top scholar suggested the key to success is getting your work done by burying your head, much like an ostrich. Smith thinks there\u2019s value in that sometimes, but that\u2019s not how she carries herself, personally or professionally.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can be an ostrich with your head in the sand or you can be a giraffe and put your neck out,\u201d Smith said, noting the UCCS mascot was a giraffe when she was an undergrad. \u201cI am definitely a stick-your-neck-out kind of person.\u201d<\/p>\n

She is open about being a lesbian and talks about her family\u2014her son is 11 and her partner is a UCCS women\u2019s and ethnic studies instructor\u2014\u201cto draw attention to the fact that difference is valued.\u201d<\/p>\n

At her first faculty job as an assistant psychology professor at a midwestern university, she was once kicked underneath a table after speaking up during a faculty meeting.<\/p>\n

“Jessi is going to tell you what she thinks and when she disagrees with you,\u201d said Kelli Klebe, a UCCS psychology professor and dean of the graduate school who was Smith\u2019s mentor when she was in the undergraduate psychology honor\u2019s program. \u201cBut when you make a decision, she\u2019ll be right behind you, supporting you.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Connecting with people in a way that breaks down barriers is one of the most important things for Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, I want to make people laugh,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s my style so people will hear what I\u2019m saying but aren\u2019t threatened or defensive. I mean business, but I want to make you laugh, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

— Photos by\u00a0Anslee Wolfe<\/em><\/p>\n

Read earlier\u00a0faculty profiles<\/a> in this series here:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Faculty profile: Life rerouted Margaret Harris\u2019 plans<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n