Jill Smith, PhD

Dr. Jill Smith is part of the Hannibal-LaGrange University Instructional Education Faculty. She accepted a position at HLGU in the fall of 2020, as an online course designer for the developing online Elementary Teacher Education Degree program. She also taught graduate and undergraduate online courses for HLGU from 2020-2022. Later, in the fall of 2022, Dr. Julie Albee, then Education Department Chair, asked her to teach in seat undergraduate courses for the Education Department.

Jill holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Missouri-Columbia, with an emphasis in Early Childhood Education and Early Literacy. She accepted her first position in higher education from the University of Houston-Clear Lake, in Houston, Texas, where she was an Assistant Professor from 2011-2015. Looking to move back closer to home, she accepted a position at Central Methodist University, in Fayette, MO, as an Assistant Professor from 2015-2020.

Prior to her positions in higher education, Dr. Smith was a general education teacher in Missouri public schools, grades kindergarten through third, for 24 years. While completing her B.S. Degree in Early Childhood Education at Hannibal-LaGrange University (1983-1985), she was the director and lead teacher of a church-based preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds, at the Second Baptist Church, in Bowling Green, MO.

Dr. Smith lives in Eolia, MO with her dog Riley. She has three grown children and six grandchildren. She attends Edgewood Baptist Church in rural Bowling Green, MO.