Biography

Dr. Johnsen-Smith’s current role as the Director of Strategic Partnerships, Clinical Field Experiences, and Compliance in the Education Department Office of Education Partnerships, Clinical Field Experiences, and Program Quality at Roger Williams University involves state accreditation and compliance activities, establishing and sustaining partnerships for teacher candidates and expanding opportunities to advocate for equitable, diverse, and inclusive teaching practices across schools in the local region.

Dr. Johnsen-Smith’s current role as the Director of Partnerships and Field Experiences in the Education Department at Roger Williams University involves establishing and sustaining partnerships for teacher candidates and expanding opportunities to advocate for equitable, diverse, and inclusive teaching practices across schools in the local region. Dr. Johnsen-Smith also serves as an adjunct professor of education and has taught courses in educational psychology, classroom communities, health issues in education, and has supervised student teachers in the undergraduate and special education master’s programs. Through her work she has expanded the Education Department’s partnership with local organizations and schools to grapple with academic losses due to the pandemic. She has also partnered with Diversity Talks, a Providence-based program, focused on empowering youth voices to increase conversations related to social justice to expand conversations around implicit bias. More recently, she initiated a partnership with Rhode Island PBS and RWU to collaborate on the presentation of a film screening and local public television broadcast of the award-winning film, PUSHOUT: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools, and served as moderator for the panel discussion to unpack the many critical issues and themes presented in the film.

Dr. Johnsen-Smith’s research interests and community activities have involved founding the Glocal Citizenship Institute to advance English and intercultural capacities, leverage global competency standards, engage local professionals, and elevate peaceful intercultural relations through an examination of international literature that focuses on self-awareness and mindfulness practices. In 2019, Dr. Johnsen-Smith was invited to present her research and community project in a workshop entitled, “Activate Local Citizenship and Empower Leadership,” at the AFS Global Conference in Montreal, Canada in October.