Rob Smith joined the Office of Academic Affairs as Director of Academic Assessment after teaching nine years in the Psychology Department at Berea College. The Director of Academic Assessment works closely with all academic and academic support programs to improve student learning through systematic and intentional assessment efforts. This work is carried out primarily through direct consultations with faculty, staff, committees, and entire programs to find meaningful and sustainable ways to better understand the extent to which students are achieving specific identified student learning outcomes.

Dr. Smith’s academic and research interests are varied and quite often driven by student interests. He maintains an EEG lab in which he and his student researchers have conducted studies on a range of topics including math anxiety, cognitive styles, creativity, and gender differences in spatial reasoning. He has a strong interest in researching student learning, particularly in higher education among first-generation college students. Dr. Smith currently teaches the Statistics and Research Methods courses for the Psychology Program. In the past, he has also taught courses ranging from General Psychology, Abnormal Psychology, and Personality Theories to Tests and Measurements and Senior Research, the Psychology Program’s capstone independent research experience required of all psychology majors.

Dr. Smith earned his B.S. in psychology from the University of Arizona in 1997 and his M.A. and Ph. D. in clinical psychology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1999 and 2003, respectively. Dr. Smith’s primary clinical interests and experience involve psychological measurement and evaluation, primarily in the areas of substance use disorders and disorders of childhood (e.g., ADHD, learning disabilities, and mood disorders). Although he does not currently engage in clinical practice, Dr. Smith is a licensed clinical psychologist with a Health Service Provider in Psychology designation in the state of Kentucky.

Prior to joining Berea College in 2003, Dr. Smith worked for a community mental health center where he conducted psychological evaluations and helped develop a day treatment program for adults with severe mental illnesses and co-occurring substance use disorders.