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Rachel Smith

Students Teaching Students

In coordination with an undergraduate-run organization called Students Teaching Students, CAS department faculty members mentor exemplary students who develop and teach 1-credit courses on a variety of subjects that advance expertise in communication and its role in public life. This semester, Associate Teaching Professor Lori Bedell is supporting undergraduates Kara Miller (who was in Lori’s RCL course a few years back) and Jess Strait as they teach a course titled “Period Talk: The Impact of Stigma on the Menstrual Equity Movement.”
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Rachel Smith

Dr. Nancy J. Metzger Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences, and Human Development and Family Studies
ras57@psu.edu
(814) 865-4201
216 Sparks Building University Park , PA 16802
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Curriculum Vitae

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Education

B.A., Boston University, 1994 (Psychology)
B.S., Boston University, 1994 (Broadcast/ Film)
M.S., University of Arizona, 1999 (Communication)
Ph.D., Michigan State University, 2003 (Communication)

Websites

https://www.huck.psu.edu/people/rachel-smith
https://soda.la.psu.edu/people/ras57/

Professional Bio

Rachel Smith is a quantitative scientist whose interests lie broadly in social influence and social systems.  Themes in her scholarship include why some expressions of prejudice diffuse and become social stigmas, and how social power, affiliation, and network topology shape persuasion and resistance. She also develops and evaluates approaches to design effective health campaigns that improve well-being, avoid iatrogenic outcomes, and advance theory. Professor Smith teaches undergraduate courses on persuasion (CAS 220), communication theory (CAS 303), health communication (CAS 453), and intercultural communication (CAS 471), and graduate seminars in quantitative research methods (CAS 561), social influence (CAS 550), health campaigns (CAS 567), and advanced methods for dyadic and network data (CAS 563 “Pairs and pairings”). Her research has been funded by NIH, the Gates Foundation, CDC, USAID, and private foundations.

Current students: Ruth Osoro (Ph.D., anticipated 2025), Youzhen Su (Ph.D., anticipated 2026), Van Anh Nguyen (M.A., anticipated 2024), and Hayden D’Elena (Schreyer Honors, anticipated 2024)