Assistant Research Professor
Assistant Director, Center on Educational Governance
Ph.D., University of Southern California

E-Mail: joannasm@usc.edu
Phone: (303)443-2705
Office: WPH 901

Dr. Joanna Smith is a Assistant Research Professor at USC Rossier School of Education and Assistant Director of the Center on Educational Governance (CEG). From January 2007 to June 2009, she was the William E. B. Siart Research Fellow with CEG. Dr. Smith received her Ph.D. in Educational Policy and Administration from Rossier in 2004, and the title of her dissertation was "Working Together to Improve Education: Alliances between Charter Schools and Community-Based Organizations."

Dr. Smith has worked on numerous charter school studies. She is currently the research team lead for the National Resource Center on Charter School Finance and Governance, a three-year initiative funded through a grant from the U.S. Department of Education for which she supervises graduate student research assistants during all study activities including research design, data collection instrument creation, team trainings, data collection and data analysis, as well as the writing and dissemination of results to state policymakers, charter school authorizers and charter school operators.