Kathryn Elizabeth H. Smith

Dr. Kathryn Smith began teaching graduate literacy courses at Campbellsville University in May of 2021. Dr. Smith became fulltime faculty in the Fall of 2022 and has taught both graduate and undergraduate literacy courses. Prior to her time at CU, Dr. Smith worked as an adjunct professor at Asbury University from 2017-2019. Also, she was a teaching assistant at UK’s College of Education from 2014-2016. In addition, Dr. Smith was previously an elementary teacher in the public schools, and has worked extensively with Appalachian and ESL students in Central, KY. Dr. Smith thoroughly enjoys integrating rigorous pedagogy and practical classroom experiences into her CU courses.

Dr. Smith’s research interests include literacy with Appalachians and ELL students especially related to reading comprehension and culturally relevant instruction. Recently, Dr. Smith completed her doctoral dissertation titled: Transplanted Appalachians Perspectives of Culturally Relevant Topics/Texts and How These Topics/Texts Aid in Their Reading Comprehension. Dr. Smith hopes her research efforts will contribute to the research community and practitioners understanding of how culturally relevant topics/texts aid in the reading comprehension of diverse students. She hopes to conduct further research on this topic in the future.

2011: Bachelors of Arts in Elementary Education (BA) from University of Kentucky

Dean’s List, Department of Curriculum and Instruction Scholarship (i.e., two academic years), Assistantship/Fellowship Scholarships- Full Tuition Scholarships (i.e., two academic years), Randall J. Rogers Scholarship, John Edwin Partington & Gwendolyn Gray Partington Scholarship, Arvle & Ellen Turner Thacker Endowment Fund, and George Denmark Scholarship.