Rate My Professor Andrea Smith

Andrea Smith is Professor of Early Childhood in the Department of Teaching, Learning and Educational Studies at Western Michigan University, holding a joint appointment in Family and Consumer Sciences. She received her Ph.D. in Family and Child Ecology from Michigan State University in 1993, M.S.W. in Social Work from Wayne State University in 1984, and B.S. in Child Development and Elementary Education from Michigan State University in 1979. Joining Western Michigan University in 1994 as an instructor in the Department of Teaching, Learning and Leadership, she advanced to assistant, associate, and full professor. Smith coordinated the Early Childhood Master's degree program for over 30 years, developed the Kinship Care Families Graduate Certificate—the only such graduate-level program in the country—and directed approximately 550 capstone research projects. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses integrating ecological perspectives on early childhood education, play-based instruction, diverse families, kinship care, and child development centers administration.

Smith's research focuses on kinship care families, custodial grandparents raising grandchildren, and optimizing young children's development through support for diverse families including teen parents and those with preterm infants. She secured grants including $365,000 from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for Grandparent Resource Centers Promoting School Readiness (2006–2009) and $293,262 from the U.S. Department of Education for Child Care Access Means Parents in School (2001–2005). Awards include two Fulbright Senior Specialist grants for presentations in the United Kingdom and Norway, the College of Education and Human Development Multi-Cultural Advocate Award for Global Engagement (2018), and Hainke Institute Faculty Scholar (2013). Key publications comprise 'Grandparents raising grandchildren: A psychoeducational group approach' (Vacha-Haase, Ness, Dannison, & Smith, 2000, Journal for Specialists in Group Work), 'Custodial grandparent families and health care: Steps for developing responsive health care systems' (Grinwys, Smith, & Dannison, 2004, Michigan Family Review), and recent articles on custodial grandparents during COVID-19 (Whitley et al., in press; Fruehauf et al., 2024). Co-founder and co-Executive Editor of GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy, she has presented at conferences including NAEYC, NCFR, and Gerontological Society of America, and authored resources for kinship care professionals.