Associate Professor of Reading Education
William & Mary

Kristin Conradi Smith is the Virginia L. McLaughlin Associate Professor of Reading Education at William & Mary. She has taught pre-service and in-service teachers at William & Mary, NC State, and the University of Virginia for over fifteen years. She is the author of more than 35 articles on topics including reading motivation, text complexity, and supporting students who struggle with reading. 

Kristin’s current research examines how texts are selected, positioned, and used in elementary classrooms—the “what,” “why,” and “how” of text use—and the instructional contexts that help children build knowledge and understanding.

Before entering higher education, Kristin taught kindergarten, second grade, and fourth grade in Camden, New Jersey, and Richmond, Virginia. She has also served as a Title I Reading Coach for grades K–3, a middle-school summer literacy teacher in Charlottesville, and the director of the NC State Reading Clinic. Her work continues to be shaped by these classroom and clinical experiences and by her commitment to helping teachers provide meaningful, text-centered literacy instruction.