Kayla M. Smith

REPORTING FELLOW

Kayla M. Smith is committed to serving as a global change agent through community building rooted in storytelling and cultural art exchanges. Born and raised in Stone Mountain, Georgia, Smith is a graduating senior majoring in international studies with a concentration in diplomacy at Spelman College in Atlanta.

She has studied abroad in Antigua and Barbuda for six months and in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, during which she discovered her passion for gaining proximity to truths through an arts lens rooted in research, writing, and civic engagement. Smith has continued to put the arts in conversation with diplomacy through her academic endeavors, campus involvement, and community service.

At Spelman, Smith was an active member of the Ethel Waddell Githii Honors program, tutored in the Spelman Writing Center, and served as a Social Justice fellow. She is the founder and director of Spelman’s first podcast, The Blue Record. This podcast is a product of Smith and her team’s commitment to justice work, storytelling, and the critiques of counterproductive discourses that interrupt the mobility of Black women.

Smith is also a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the Phi Beta Delta Honor Society of International Scholars. Upon her graduation from Spelman, Smith plans to obtain her master's in international relations at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

When she is not working or studying, Smith enjoys reading, listening to podcasts, and spending time with her loved ones.

Headshot of Kayla Smith