Stephen Smith, professor of agricultural and regional economics, has been appointed head of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology in the College of Agricultural Sciences.

“Steve Smith brings a solid record of scholarship in teaching, research, and outreach that spans the breadth of disciplines within the department,” says Robert Steele, dean of the college. “We are delighted that he has agreed to take on this key leadership assignment.”

Smith is director of Penn State’s Center for Economic and Community Development and coordinates the Community and Economic Development graduate program. After nine years at the University of Idaho, he joined Penn State in 1986, assuming teaching and research responsibilities in U.S. and Pennsylvania rural development and international agricultural development. He also served as economic and resource planning analyst for the Wisconsin Office of State Planning and Energy in 1976 and 1977 and volunteered in the Peace Corps in Bolivia from 1967 to 1969.

Smith’s research encompasses rural and regional economic change, economic development policy, and economic impact analysis, the role of the service sector, business location, and entrepreneurship. He was among the first researchers to examine the role of service industries in rural American communities. Smith has written or co-authored three book chapters and 33 refereed papers and journal articles, and delivered invited lectures at more than 50 national and international conferences.

In 1998 and 1999, Smith was a Senior Fulbright Scholar at the Institute for Peruvian Studies in Lima, Peru. He received the Outstanding Faculty Award from the Associated Students of the University of Idaho in 1981. He also has worked in Spain, Chile, and several other Latin American countries.

He received a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of Pennsylvania in 1967, and master’s and doctoral degrees in agricultural economics from the University of Wisconsin in 1971 and 1974, respectively. He is president of the Southern Regional Science Association and is a member of the American Agricultural Economics Association, the Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association, and the Community Development Society.

— Gary Abdullah