Jessi L. Smith is a Professor of Psychology and the Associate Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. Dr. Smith’s research specializes in social psychological aspects of gender and culture that advance the success of marginalized and minoritized people within the spaces they learn, work, and live. By the numbers, she has over 70 peer reviewed publications and one book to her credit. She also has over $10 million in external funding from the NIH and NSF. Her funded work includes longitudinal analyses of Native American and Latino student experiences in STEM; cross-sectional analyses of women’s motivation for STEM; and experimental interventions designed to change situations to foster diversity, equity, and inclusion. She served as Director and Primary Investigator of the NSF funded ADVANCE IT Project TRACS at Montana State University, which broadened the participation of women faculty in STEM and behavioral science fields, including enhancing research opportunity and capacity for the entire campus community. She currently serves as the PI on the ADVANCE Adaption Grant called Project CREST, which adapts evidence-based practices to create sustainable equity within the research culture at UCCS.

Dr. Smith was hired as the first full time Chief Research Officer at UCCS in 2018. She brings her diversity and motivational science lens to provide leadership and oversight for campus research and sponsored program activities. Using shared governance leadership, her role is to assess, create, and revise research policies and procedures; promote growth and development of sponsored project activity; develop activities to promote professional development of faculty and students for research excellence; manage research communications and research data analytics, and ensure the responsible conduct of research. Dr. Smith also serves as the Technology Transfer official and the Research Integrity Officer. She has served on the NIH Advisory Committee to the Director’s Working Group on Diversity and is currently on the research advisory team for the Advance Resource and Coordination Network. She is dedicated to reshaping structures to positively impact research motivation and ensuring the highest level of integrity, inclusion, and ethics. She is a mother, partner, avid hot spring soaker, animal lover, and country music fan.

Read a nice summary of some of Dr Smith’s research highlighted in this Oct 20, 2015 issue of Amy Poehler's Smart Girl Blog! And in this April 20, 2017 Washington Post article 

Or Read more about the AVC-R here.

• Ph.D. (2002) Psychology, University of Utah
• M. S. (2000) Psychology, University of Utah
• B. A. (1997) Psychology, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs

• Fellow, American Psychological Association. 
• Fellow, Association for Psychological Science
• Fellow, Society for Personality and Social Psychology
• Division 35 of American Psychological Association, Society for the Psychology of Women
• Rocky Mountain Psychological Association
• Association for Women in Science
• American Education Research Association

• McPartlan, P., Thoman, D. B., Poe. J., Herrera, F. & Smith, J. L. (2022). Appealing to faculty gatekeepers: Motivational processes for intentions to adopt an evidence-based intervention. BioScience, 72 (7), 664-672. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biac029
• Smith, J. L., Vidler, L. L., Moses, M. S. (2022). The “gift” of time: Documenting faculty decisions to stop the tenure clock during a pandemic. Innovative Higher Education.  https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10755-022-09603-y
• Ashburn-Nardo, L., Moss-Racusin, C. A., Smith, J. L., Sanzari, C. M., Vescio, T. K., & Glick, P. (2022). The Reproducibility Movement in Psychology: Does Researcher Gender Affect How People Perceive Scientists With a Failed Replication? Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.823147
• Hughes, B. E., Smith, J. L., *Bruun, M., Shanahan, E. A., Rushing, S., Intemann, K., Handley, I. M., Belou, R., Stoop, C., & Sterman, L. (2022). Department leaders as critical conduits for the advancement of gender equity programs. Journal of Women and Gender in Higher Education, 15, 41-64. doi 10.1080/26379112.2022.2034122.  
• Brown, E. R., Smith, J. L., & Rossmann, D. (2022). “Broad” Impact: Perceptions of Sex/Gender-Related Psychology Journals. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.796069
• Thoman, D.B., Lee, G.A., Zambrano, J., Geerling, D.M., Smith, J.L., & Sansone, C. (2019). Social influences of interest: Conceptualizing group differences in education through a self-regulation of motivation model. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 22, 330-355. doi: 10.1177/1368430219838337
• Allen, J. M., Smith, J. L., & Ransdell, L. (2019). Missing or Seizing the Opportunity? The Effect of an Opportunity Hire on Job Offers to Science Faculty Candidates. Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion: An International Journal. 38, 160-177. doi: 10.1108/EDI-09-2017-0201
• Allen, J., Smith, J. L., Thoman, D. B. & Walters, R. (2018). A Fluctuating Team Science: Perceiving Science as Collaborative Improves Science Students’ Motivation. Motivation Science, Motivation Science, 4(4), 347-361. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/mot0000099
• Smith, J. L., Handley, I.M., Rushing, S., Belou, R., *Kambich, L., Skewes, M. C., Shanahan, E.A., Honea, J., Intemann, K. (2018). Added Benefits:  How Supporting Women Faculty in STEM Improves Everyone’s Job Satisfaction. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 11(4), 502-517.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000066
• Deemer, E. D. & Smith, J. L. (2018). Motivational climates: Assessing and testing how science classroom environments contribute to undergraduates’ self-determined and achievement-based science goals. Learning Environments Research, 21(2), 245-266. DOI 10.1007/s10984-017-9252-y
• *Bruun, M.,Willoughby, S. & Smith, J. L. (2018). Identifying the Stereotypical Who, What, and Why of Physics and Biology. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 14, 020125. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.14.020125
• Skewes, M. C., Shanahan, E. A., Smith, J. L., Honea, J., Belou, R., Rushing, S., Intemann, K., & Handley, I. M. (2018). Absent Autonomy: Relational Competence and Gendered Paths to Faculty Self-Determination in the Promotion and Tenure Process. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 11(3), 366-383. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000064
• Smith, J. L., Stoop, C. D., Young, M., Belou. R., Held, S. (2017). Grant writing bootcamp: An intervention to enhance the research capacity of academic women in STEM. BioScience, 67 (7), 638-645. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/bix050
• Thoman, D. B., *Muragishi, G. A. & Smith, J. L. (2017). Research Microcultures as Socialization Contexts for Underrepresented Science Students. Psychological Science. 28(6), 760-773. doi: 10.1177/0956797617694865.
  • Featured in Psychological Science News
• Cech, E. A., Metz, A., Smith, J. L., deVries, K. (2017). Epistemological Dominance and Social Inequality: Experiences of Native American Science, Engineering, and Health Students. Science, Technology & Human Values, 42 (5), 743-774. https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243916687037.
• Meade, M. L., *McNabb, J. C., *Lindeman, M. I. H., & Smith, J. L. (2017).  Discounting input from older adults:  The role of age salience on partner age effects in the social contagion of memory.  Memory, 25, 704-716. doi: 10.1080/09658211.2016.1207783
• Lawrence, J. S. & Smith, J. L. (2017). Academically-Contingent Self-Worth and Vulnerability: When Approach Self-Validation Goals are More Threatening than Avoidance Self-Validation Goals. Self and Identity, 16(3), 353-372. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2017.1292183

• Harackiewicz, J. M., Smith, J. L., Priniski, S. (2016). Interest Matters: The Importance of Promoting Interest in Education. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 3(2), 220-227. Doi: 10.1177/2372732216655542

• Mitchneck, E., Smith, J. L. & Latimer, M. (2016). A Recipe for Change: Creating a More Inclusive Academy. Science, 352 (6282), 148-149. doi: 10.1126/science.aad8493

• Handley, I.M., Brown, E., Moss-Racusin, C.A., Smith, J.L. (2015). The quality of evidence revealing subtle gender biases in science is in the eye of the beholder. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112 (43), 13201–13206.   doi: 10.1073/pnas.1510649112
  Featured in several outlets including:
  • Science News
  • Insider Higher Education
  • Think Progress.org
  • The Australian
  • Feminist Philosophers

• Smith, J. L., Handley, I. M., Zale, A. V., Rushing, S. A. & Potvin, M. (2015). Now Hiring! Empirically Testing a 3-Step Intervention to Increase Faculty Gender Diversity in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Bioscience, 65, 1084-1087. doi: 10.1093/biosci/biv138  
  Featured in several outlets including:
  • Insider Higher Education
  • Science Daily
  • Pacific Standard
  • Fast Company

• Brown, E. R., Thoman, D. B., Smith, J. L., & Diekman, A. B. (2015). Closing the communal goal gap: Degree of goal congruity predicts science career motivation and interest. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 45, 662–673. doi: 10.1111/jasp.12327

• Brown, E.R., Smith, J. L., Thoman, D.B., Allen, J., & *Muragishi, G. (2015). From bench to bedside: A communal utility value intervention to enhance students’ science motivation. Journal of Educational Psychology. 07(4), 1116-1135. Doi:10.1037/edu0000033

• Smith, J. L., Brown, E. R., Thoman, D. B., Deemer, E. D. (2015). Losing its expected communal value: How stereotype threat undermines women’s identity as research scientists. Social Psychology of Education, 18, 443-466. doi 10.1007/s11218-015-9296-8

• Thoman, D. B., Brown, E. R., Mason, A. Z., Harmsen, A. G. & Smith, J. L. (2015). The role of altruistic values in motivating underrepresented minority  students for Biomedicine.Bioscience, 65, 183-188. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biu199
  Featured in the Washington Post (April 20, 2017)

• Smith, J. L.,  & *Huntoon, M. (2014). Women without Bragging Rights: An Experimental Investigation on Facilitating Women’s Self-Promotion via Misattribution. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 38, 447-459. doi: 10.1177/0361684313515840.
  Featured in:
  • Interviewed on American Public Media’s Market Place
  • Interviewed on National Public Radio’s The Take Away
  • Science Daily News
  • The Bozeman Daily Chronicle
  • Huffington Post and interviewed on HuffPostLive Jan 24, 2014

• Deemer, E. D., Thoman, D., B., *Chase, J. P., & Smith, J. L. (2014). Feeling the threat: Stereotype threat as a contextual barrier to women’s science career choices. Journal of Career Development, 4, 141-158.DOI: 10.1177/0894845313483003

• Deemer, E. D., Smith, J. L., Carroll, A. N., & Carpenter, J. P. (2014). Academic procrastination in STEM: Interactive effects of stereotype threat and achievement goals. Career Development Quarterly, 62, 143-155. doi: 10.1002/j.2161-0045.2014.00076.x

• Thoman, D. B., *Arizaga, J. A., Smith, J. L., *Story, T. S., *Soncuya, G. (2014). The Grass is Greener in Non-STEM Classes: Examining the Role of Competing Belonging in Undergraduate Women’s Vulnerability to Being Pulled Away from Science.Psychology of Women Quarterly38, 246-258. doi: 10.1177/0361684313499899

• Deemer, E., Smith, J. L., Thoman, D. B., *Chase, J. P. (2014). Precision in Career Motivation Assessment: Testing the Subjective Science Attitude Change Measures. Journal of Career Assessment, 22, 489-504. doi: 10.1177/1069072713498683.

• Smith, J. L., Deemer, E., D., Thoman, D. B. & *Zazworsky, L. (2014). Motivation under the microscope: Understanding undergraduate science students’ multiple motivations for research. Motivation and Emotion, 38, 496-512. doi 10.1007/s11031-013-9388-8

• Smith, J. L., Cech, E., Metz, A., *Huntoon, M., & *Moyer, C. (2014). Giving back or giving up: Native American student experiences in science and engineering. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 20, 413-429. doi: 10.1037/a0036945.

• Li, Jian-Bin, Nie, Yan-Gang, Zeng, Min-Xia, Huntoon, M., Smith, J. L. (2013). Too exhausted to remember: Ego depletion undermines subsequent event-based prospective memory. International Journal of Psychology.

• Allen, J., Gervais, S. J., & Smith, J. L. (2013). Sit Big to Eat Big: The Interaction of Body Posture and Body Concern on Restrained Eating. Psychology of Women Quarterly

• Thoman, D. B., Smith, J. L., Brown, E. R., Chase, J., &*Lee, J. Y. K. (2013). Beyond performance: A motivational experiences model of stereotype threat. Educational Psychology Review

• Smith, J. L, Lewis, K. L., Hawthorne, L., & Hodges, S. D. (2013). When Trying Hard Isn’t Natural: Women’s Belonging with and Motivation for Male-Dominated STEM Fields as a Function of Effort Expenditure Concerns. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 39, 3-15. doi: 10.1177/0146167212468332.

• Hutchison, K., Smith, J. L., & Ferris, A. (2013). Goals Can Be Threatened to Extinction: Using the Stroop to Clarify Working Memory Depletion under Stereotype Threat. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 4, 74-81. doi: 10.1177/1948550612440734

• Sansone, C., Smith, J. L., Thoman, D. B., & Macnamara, A. (2012). Regulating Interest When Learning Online:  Potential Motivation and Performance Trade-offs. The Internet and Higher Education,15 (3), 141-149. doi: 10.1016/j.iheduc.2011.10.004

• Cech, E., Metz, A., Babcock, T. & Smith, J. L. (2011). Caring for Our Own The Role of Institutionalized Support Structures in Native American Nursing Student Success. Journal of Nursing Education, 50, 524-531 doi: 10.3928/01484834-20110517-01

• Metz, A. Cech, E., Babcock, T. & Smith, J. L. (2011). The Effect of Formal and Informal Support Structures on the Motivation of Native American Students in Nursing. Journal of Nursing Education, 50, 388-394 DOI: 10.3928/01484834-20110415-01

• Smith, J. L., Ickes, W., Hall, J., & Hodges, S. (2011). Managing Interpersonal Sensitivity: Knowing When—and When Not—To Understand Others. Nova Science Publishers, New York, NY.

• Smith, J. L., Hawkinson, K., & Paull, K. (2011). Spoiled milk: An experimental examination of bias against mothers who breastfeed.Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37,  867-878. doi: 10.1177/0146167211401629

• Allen, J. & Smith, J. L. (2011). Walking down Castro Street: The influence of sexuality stereotypes on men’s experience of gender-role incongruence. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 12, 77-96. doi: 10.1037/a0019678

• Thoman, D. B., Smith, J. L., & Silvia, P. J. (2011). Interest and Ego Depletion: Demonstrating the Resource Replenishment Function of Interest. Social Psychological and Personality Science (online first) doi: 10.1177/1948550611402521

• Sansone, C., Thoman, D. B. & Smith, J. L. (2010). Interest and self-regulation: Understanding individual variability in choices, efforts and persistence over time. In R. Hoyle (Ed.) Handbook of Personality and Self-Regulation, Molden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

• Hupp, J. M., Smith, J. L., Coleman, J. M., & Brunell, A. B. (2010) That’s a Boy’s Toy: Gender Typed Knowledge in Toddlers as a Function of Mother’s Marital Status. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 171, 389-401. DOI: 10.1080/00221325.2010.500637

• Tragakis, M. A., & Smith, J. L. (2010) The Relationship between Social Identity Integration and Psychological Adjustment:  A Focus on Mainstream and Marginalized Cultural Identities. Identity:An International Journal of Theory and Research, 10, 201-221.

For a complete list of publications, please see Dr. Smith’s google scholar profile