Ellen Smith, Ph.D.

Associate Professor-in-Residence

Ellen Smith, LICSW, is an associate professor-in-residence at the University of Connecticut School of Social Work. Her interests include HIV/AIDS, mental health and psychosocial issues related to women’s health, trauma, gender-based violence, feminist theory, and the integration of theory and practice.

UConn’s Office of Outreach and Engagement named Dr. Smith a 2026 Service Learning Fellow. She received a Provost Common Curriculum Grant to support the development of a new course that examines gender-based violence through a social justice lens. The course includes a service-learning component that connects students with community organizations in the Hartford area working to prevent and respond to gender-based violence, as well as with initiatives across the University.

Dr. Smith’s scholarship has been published in the Journal of HIV/AIDS and Social Services, Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, and Children and Schools. She also contributed to Handbook of Social Work with Vulnerable and Resilient Populations, 3rd edition (New York: Columbia University Press), and Mental Health and Social Problems: A Social Work Perspective (Abingdon: Routledge).

Dr. Smith teaches Gender and Social Work: Feminist Theory and Practice; Advanced Approaches to Practice with Individuals, Groups and Families; Human Behavior in the Social Environment: Micro and Macro Theories; and Field Education Seminar I and II, among other courses.

Dr. Smith joined the UConn faculty in 2005. She earned her Ph.D. in social work from Smith College School for Social Work, her MS in social work from Columbia University School of Social Work, and her BA in women’s studies from Brown University.

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