She later attended the Rhode Island School of Design, studying furniture making under Tage Frid.

[4] After graduating college in 1981 she worked for a small furniture maker and then a Rhode Island boat builder.

Today she continues to run a business, working alongside her husband Reuben Wade to design and build interiors and commercial remodeling.

To create thickness and dimension in her work, she often uses torsion boxes - hollow structures with a frame-like core and a plywood "skin", veneered to look solid.

[8] At the American Craft Council conference held in Philadelphia in 2019, Smith spoke on a panel about women in woodworking hosted by Jennifer-Navva Milliken alongside woodworkers Laura Mays, Meg Bye, Emily Bunker, Fo Wilson (also known as Folayemi Wilson), and Sarah Marriage of A Workshop of Our Own.