Tara C. Smith, Ph.D.

Tara Smith, Ph.D., is a professor of epidemiology at the Kent State University College of Public Health. She obtained her Ph.D. in microbiology at the University of Toledo and her B.S. in biology from Yale University. She spent two years as a post-doctoral fellow in infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Michigan, and nine years as an assistant and associate professor (with tenure) at the University of Iowa prior to moving to Kent State University in 2013. Smith’s research focuses on zoonotic infections (infections which are transferred between animals and humans), and she has published over 80 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters on topics in infectious disease epidemiology. She has also written books on group A streptococcus, group B streptococcus, and ebola. A second book on ebola, Ebola's Message, was published by MIT Press in 2016. She lives in rural Ohio with her partner and three children.