Dr. Ruth Smith is an Assistant Professor of Teaching and Director of Digital Learning Advising, Field Experiences, and Capstone Projects. Her research explores issues related to community building in community arts and online teaching and learning. She is currently documenting the history of a progressive pedagogy practiced in a small Art + Design program from 1994 to 2014 and the impact it has had on alumni currently teaching in the arts. She has completed three multi-year narrative participatory photography projects in Columbus, Ohio and Lafayette, Indiana, which aim to collaboratively document and share stories of Somali Americans and Muslim Americans and engage people across religious and cultural lines in dialogue. She spent four years working with Somali non-profits in Columbus, Ohio writing grants and developing organizational capacity. In addition, she is active as a consultant for community engagement and teaches “Research Methods” for the Postgraduate Diploma in Arts Education Program at Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston, Jamaica. She has published articles in Transformative Dialogues, Bildhaan, Journal of Folklore and Education, Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education, Action Research, and the Journal of Art for Life. She has a chapter in the Handbook of Research on the Facilitation of Civic Engagement through Community Art and a co-authored book with Qorsho Hassan, Urur Dhex-Dhexaad Ah: Community In-Between, published by Trillium Press in 2017.