Susan Elizabeth Smith aspires to contribute to a greater understanding of the complex determinants of health and well-being for families, groups and communities worldwide. Dr. Smith is focused on the design, implementation and evaluation of development programs in destitute and isolated communities in many different countries.
Dr. Smith is the founder and Executive Director of a non-governmental humanitarian organization which, over the past twenty years, has gradually developed small scale integrated programs in health and healing, income generation, community education, and environment, water and sanitation in a large rural Nahua village in northern Guerrero, Mexico.
Winner of the “Women of Vision” award from YWCA Calgary/Global TV and The University of Calgary Distinguished Alumni Award (2008), Susan holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Education specializing in community health, development and participatory-action research. Dr. Smith is editor and chapter author of Nurtured by Knowledge Learning to do Participatory-Action Research (1997) and is currently writing a book entitled Believe in Recovery A Family Guide to Better Brain Health.