Kimberly Smoots
Hello, my name is Kimberly Smoots, and I am a first-generation college graduate from El Paso. I am currently a eighth-year student in the doctoral program. I received my B.A. in psychology from Texas A&M in Corpus Christi. I am bilingual, bi-ethnic and biracial. I am hoping to graduate with a focus on bilingual service delivery.
My advisor is Dr. Bradley Smith. My research interests include school-based mindfulness and cultural factors in service delivery, family-school relationships and family-focused service delivery such as parent management training. I am also generally interested in intervention research for mood, behavior, and emotional disorders and/or challenges. I am passionate about reducing mental health and/or disability stigma and hope to increase knowledge, awareness and acceptance among the families and communities.
I enjoy working in schools and have focused most of my training in this setting. I completed my school practicum in Katy ISD, my LSSP internship in Deer Park ISD and worked in Cypress-Fairbanks ISD for my advanced practicum training. In these practicums, I gained wonderful experiences doing assessments, interventions and consultation in both English and Spanish, primarily with elementary school students. Currently, I am an extern at Texas Children’s Hospital in their Brief Behavioral Intervention Program for preschoolers with behavioral challenges.
While I enjoy working in schools, I am also knowledgeable about the challenges faced by individuals and families in communities that are marginalized, and I use an equity lens to explore aspects of cultural humility with research and practice. I am currently also a HEARTspeak© (Holistically Engaging in Anti-Racist Transformation) co-facilitator with Full Circle Strategies, a consulting firm in Houston, that addresses equity and racism within organizations.
In my free time, I enjoy singing, dancing, cooking, reading, spending time with my family and friends and working out! If you have any questions about the application process or the program, you can email me at kdsmoots@uh.edu.