Kathleen Shea Smith currently serves Florida State University students as the Assistant Director of Advising First.  This role involves program development and supervision of the Advising First Center for Exploratory students.  Prior to this position she advised pre-health students in the College of Medicine, students at one of the Advising First walk-in centers, and Business students at Temple University.  Kathleen received her Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Kenyon College, her Master’s degree in Education from Temple University, and her Ph.D. in Higher Education from Florida State University. 

In addition to Kathleen’s commitment to helping students achieve their goals through effective advising, she is also committed to research in the field of academic advising.  Her dissertation topic, Perceptions of Academic Advising and Freshman Student Retention: an Application of Tinto’s Model, received the 2006 National Academic Advising Association’s Student Research Award.  She has presented at both regional and national conferences on the topics of Student Retention, Advising Assessment, and Students’ Reflections of the Major Selection Process.

When Kathleen is not in the Center for Exploratory Students, she still finds herself advising.  Her family, Dennis, Avery and Ella Smith are now accustomed to waiting for her as she advises at grocery store check-out counters, restaurants across Tallahassee and any other place she encounters students who want to share their educational journeys.