Making time to care

Her lengthy record of service started shortly after she arrived in 2000 as a tenure-track assistant professor -- mostly student recruitment and faculty awards committee work in her department. With relevant experience at previous universities, she was assigned to the executive team for kinesiology's fledgling doctoral program. 

Shortly after she earned tenure and a promotion to associate professor in 2007, "two things happened: We needed a director of graduate education and we needed a faculty senator. I stepped into both roles the same year and that's when things took off."

Her name appears on rosters for committees, task forces and advisory groups since then that have tackled a broad swath of responsibilities, from the student experience to faculty advancement, from commencement logistics to the college curriculum.

For example, Smiley currently is serving in her fourth three-year term on the Faculty Senate. She chaired one of its five structural councils, Faculty Development and Administrative Relations, for four years (and still serves on it) and its student affairs committee for eight years.

"I'm a big proponent of shared governance. If you're going to have shared governance, you've got to have faculty who step up," she said.

Smiley served in 2016 on the President's Task Force for Enrollment Management. Iowa State enrollment peaked at nearly 36,700 students that fall and the university community was pressed to support all students at the level it was proud to offer.

She was on the search committee that worked during the pandemic summer of 2020 and recommended Toyia Younger for her job as senior vice president for student affairs.

She was one of 10 on the university Task Force on the Use and Ownership of Instructional Materials, a year-plus effort to replace an educational materials policy that sat untouched for 45 years while instructional materials changed dramatically. That new policy took effect last month.

And, since 2021, the two-year University of Illinois volleyball player has served as a president's appointee to Iowa State's Athletics Council, where she also chairs the group's Student Athlete Experience Committee -- important work given the turbulent NCAA landscape and rapid changes to rules about student-athlete transfers and name, image and likeness.

A learned lesson

Asked to pinpoint when her record of service began, Smiley returns to tiny, unincorporated East Lynn in east central Illinois. She grew up on a farm with parents who both earned master's degrees, and she graduated high school in a class of 17.

"To make things run, everyone had to participate in everything," she recalled. "I played clarinet but switched to trumpet because the band needed another trumpet."

An Honors program freshman at the University of Illinois, Smiley was invited to join a research team. It was 1973, and not many first-year students received such an offer.

"I was very present in classes, so the faculty knew me," she explained. 

Later, she was an undergraduate appointee to a college committee and loved her interaction with the dean and other faculty. She left volleyball behind her junior and senior years to serve as national student chair within the American Alliance of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (now the Society of Health and Physical Educators).

The downside to service is the time it requires, and Smiley understands the tradeoff.

"The reason it's tough for tenure-track faculty to be university citizens is that it takes time away from research. Did I give some of that up? Yes," she said. "But what I love about being a faculty member is the balance: I love to teach, I enjoy the research process and I've really enjoyed getting to know people across campus, and service outside your department allows that."

Faculty presence in the student experience

Smiley's career includes dozens of other examples of carving out time to improve the Iowa State student experience. To name a few, she:

• Participated at summer orientation and back-to-school Destination Iowa State sessions for students and families.
• Served as Honors thesis advisor for 25 students, three whose work was judged best in the college and another three who presented at the regent universities' "Research in the Capitol" event.
• For nearly a decade, read the names of graduating students at the College of Human Sciences graduation events.
• Served on the Program for Women in Science and Engineering's advisory board and made many presentations to young audiences.

Since 2019, Smiley has served as one of her college's faculty marshals at university commencement ceremonies, guiding distracted graduating students through their big event.

"Everyone is so excited; it's the end of a major accomplishment," she said. "I know a lot of our students, and it's just fun to share that day with them, to help their day go better."

Rob Wallace, associate professor in ecology, evolution and organismal biology, is the long-time chief commencement marshal. He uses descriptors like "vibrant" and "energetic" to talk about Smiley's presence with the marshals.

"We see her upbeat and enthusiastic approach to assisting students every time she participates in our commencement ceremonies," he said. "This service really speaks to her personal commitment to improving the student experience and contributing her time and skills to the greater good."