Dr. Smith applies life course and lifespan developmental theory to the study of health and well-being in later life. Her research focuses on age- and health-related changes in subjective well-being, self-related beliefs, and cognition in midlife and old age and the effects of early-life experiences on late-life outcomes. She is currently PI of a project collecting, evaluating, and linking retrospective life histories about education, residential, job, family, and health to cognitive aging and transitions to AD/ADRD. She also serves as a co-investigator in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and is a MiCDA affiliate. She teaches courses on the psychology of aging, lifespan cognition, and theories of development across the lifespan.