I am a licensed social work practitioner, a nationally certified trainer for the widely-used Global Assessment of Individual Needs (GAIN), and have completed advanced clinical training in Motivational Interviewing.



Education


BS in Psychology – University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
MSW – University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
PhD in Social Work – University of Iowa




Research

Since 1996, Dr. Smith’ practice and research experience has focused on treating and preventing substance use disorders.  He has practice experience with varied substance misusing populations including: adolescents involved in the juvenile justice system, adults addicted to crack cocaine, and addicted mothers involved with child welfare.  Dr. Smith is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, and has experience implementing numerous empirically-supported treatments, including: Motivational Interviewing, the Community Reinforcement Approach, The Seven Challenges®, and Strengths Oriented Family Therapy (SOFT).
His research currently focuses on what treatments work best for adolescents and young adults with substance use disorders.  For example, with generous support from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), he is developing a peer-enhanced treatment for use with young adults with alcohol problems.  Additionally, he is interesting in studying the effects of Motivational Interviewing among adolescents with alcohol and other substance use disorders.  Because of his productivity in these two areas, he was awarded the Deborah K. Padgett Early Career Achievement Award in 2012 from the Society for Social Work and Research.