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Jana Smith, Ph.D.

Coordinator, Physical Education and Assistant Professor of Health and Physical Education and Urban Studies

Location: Michael and Shaun Jones Hall 242

Office: 504.816.4430

jsmith@dillard.edu

Dr. Smith serves as a faculty senator. She serves on the Faculty Handbook and Faculty Trustee (chairperson) Committees. She also serves as chairperson of the School of Social Sciences Curriculum and Lyceum Committee. Dr. Smith has served on the Intercollegiate Athletics (Chairperson) and Recruitment and Retention Committees. In addition, Dr. Smith has served on the president’s Mini Grant Committee and as the Dillard faculty representative for the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference. Dr. Smith presented at the Inaugural Research Symposium sponsored by The Center for Teaching Learning and Academic Technology and the Division of Academic Affairs in Spring 2015. Her work was entitled "Comparative Study on Wellness between Traditional and Non Traditional Students". 

She has developed curriculum guidelines for advising students in early childhood elementary education, physical education department and urban executive sport administration and management. She has served as the director of health and wellness workshops and developed courses for the Deep South Environmental Justice Center. In her professional career as a choreographer and dancer, Dr. Smith danced as a former New Orleans cheerleader and with the San Jacinto Dance Theater of New Orleans. Her community involvement in dance has centered on the development of routines that honor victims of sexual assault and violence at the Take Back the Night Rally. Dr. Smith has also performed at the Greater New Orleans Association of Black Psychologists Conference. 

An award winning director and choreographer of the Dillard University Diamonds Dance Team, Dr. Smith's students have won two national dance competitions with perfect scores as well as national spotlights in television commercials for the Pan American Life Insurance Company’s Super Bowl advertisements. Along with her teaching duties, she has partnered with Dillard University’s theatre department to choreograph three major productions: "Ain’t Misbehaving", "Raisin In the Sun" and "Dream Girls".

Dr. Smith earned her bachelor's degree in health and physical education from Southern University at New Orleans, her master's degree in sports administration from Grambling State University, and her Ph.D. in higher education from Jackson State University.