Our Team
Mashana Smith, PhD
Psychologist
Mashana Smith, PhD is a Psychologist and Mental Health Consultant with Lurie Children’s Center for Childhood Resilience (CCR) and an Assistant Professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. She has over 20 years of experience in clinical and community-based settings. At CCR, Dr. Smith trains school-based mental health professionals in evidence-based aggression-prevention, depression and trauma-focused interventions. Her current projects focus on both the development and sustainability of trauma-sensitive school districts and more broadly, the establishment of school-based behavioral health infrastructures that address students’ mental health needs. Dr. Smith’s work highlights and addresses gaps in school based mental health among children of color, with a focus on exposure to trauma, the intersection between racial inequality and trauma and trauma-responsive school policy and practices.
Dr. Smith serves on the University of Chicago Community Advisory Board, the School Health Access Collaborative Policy Group, the Illinois ACES Response Collaborative Advisory Council, Educators for Excellence Local Advisory Board, and Working on Womanhood (WOW) Executive Council. She is a member of the Illinois ACEs Response Collaborative State Working Group to Address Childhood Adversity and the State of Illinois’ P20 Council’s Student Support Committee.
Dr. Smith received her Bachelor of Art degree from Hampton University, and her Master’s and doctoral degrees in Clinical Community Psychology from DePaul University. She completed her post-doctoral studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago and was a National Institute for Mental Health Prevention Research in Urban Children’s Mental Health fellow.