Kelly Smith

Associate Professor of Political Science

My areas of specialty include state politics and public policy. My research focuses on American politics with a particular emphasis on the relationship among state legislative politics, bureaucratic politics and democratic governance.

  • PhD, political science, Brown University
  • MA, political science, Brown University
  • BA, political science, Providence College

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Biography

Kelly Smith received her PhD and MA in political science from Brown University. She is currently examining the ways in which bureaucratic networks facilitate policy learning among bureaucrats and legislators during the diffusion of policy and its consequences for states as laboratories of democracy. Previously, Smith was a postdoctoral research associate on the education standards research team at the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy at Brown University.

More About Kelly Smith

Areas of Expertise

  • States politics and policy
  • Public policy
  • Policy diffusion
  • Bureaucratic politics

Course Sampling

  • POLI 101S: Introduction to American National Government
  • POLI 102S: Florida Politics
  • PUBHV 140: Introduction to Public Health
  • POLI 211: The Politics of Public Policy
  • POLI 315: Political Analysis
  • POLI 325: American Health Care Policy

Publications

  • Sidorsky, Kaitlin and Kelly B. Smith. 2024. Hamiltonia: A State and Local Government Simulation. Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. (Expected Publication September 15th, 2024).
  • Kelly B. Smith, David Hill and Slavina Ancheva. 2023. Divergent Electoral Policies: Why Some States Increase Ballot Access State Politics & Policy Quarterly 23(1): 26-47.
  • Kelly B. Smith. 2022. Laboratories of Bureaucracy: How Bureaucrats Learn Across States in Setting Early Childhood Education Standards. Publius: the Journal of Federalism 52(4): 553-578.
  • Susan L. Moffitt, Cadence Willse, Kelly B. Smith, and David K. Cohen. 2021. Centralization and Subnational Capacity: The Struggle to Make Federalism Work Equitably in Public Education. Perspectives on Politics First View.
  • Kelly B. Smith. 2020. Learning Without Widespread Adoption: Early Childhood Education in the American States Publius: The Journal of Federalism 50(1): 3-29.
  • David K. Cohen, Susan L. Moffitt, and Kelly B. Smith. The Influence of Practice on Policy. 2018. In Shaping Education Policy: Power and Process, Douglas E. Mitchell, Robert Crowson, and Dorothy Shipps (eds.). Taylor and Francis.

Other Publications

  • Susan L. Moffitt, Matthew J. Lyddon, Michaela Krug ONiell, Kelly B. Smith, Marie Schenk, Cadence Willse, and David K. Cohen. Frontlines Perspectives on Instructional Support in the Common Core Era. Prepared for the Getting Down to Facts II Project.
  • Susan L. Moffitt, Matthew J. Lyddon, Domingo Morel, Michaela Krug ONeill, Kelly B. Smith, Cadence Willse, and David K. Cohen. State Structures for Institutional Support in California. Prepared for the Getting Down to Facts II Project. 

Published Commentary

  • Kelly B. Smith. Domestic Violence Victims are Ignored Voices of Pandemic, Orlando Sentinel, April 22nd. 2020.
  • Kelly B. Smith. In Pre-K, Florida Places Excels in Quantity, but Lags in Quality, Orlando Sentinel, July 30th, 2019.