Kelley A. Smith ’06 MPH

Kelley A. Smith ’06 MPH, of Lincoln, R.I.; Apr. 1, of a brain tumor. Prior to Brown, she graduated from Smith College and became committed to causes that promoted feminism, social justice, and civil rights for the LGBTQ community. In 1990, she met her future wife and in 2005 testified before the Rhode Island House Judiciary Committee in favor of a bill supporting same-sex civil marriage. She worked for several years at Brown’s Population Studies and Training Center before receiving her degree. She put her public health degree to work conducting research on sexual and reproductive health and traveled to South Africa, Bangladesh, and Ethiopia. In 2010, she and her wife and daughter moved to American Samoa, where she worked as field director on a project conducting diabetes research. That fall, after a seizure, she was evacuated to New Zealand, diagnosed with a brain tumor, and underwent her first craniotomy. In 2011, she returned to Rhode Island and resumed an active life working back at Brown’s Population Studies and Training Center. She was a backstage manager and emcee at the Harbor Stage of the Newport Folk Festival for nearly 20 years and she enjoyed painting, gardening, and birdwatching. She achieved a lifelong ambition to publish a piece of creative writing when her poem appeared in the anthology Dear Vaccine: Global Voices Speak to the Pandemic. She is survived by her wife, Sam; a daughter; her parents; a sister and her husband; a brother-in-law and his wife; her daughter’s father and his husband; and four nieces and nephews.