J.D. Smith, Ph.D. is Associate Professor in the Division of Health Services Innovation and Research in the Department of Population Health Sciences at the University of Utah School of Medicine. His research focuses on implementation science and the development of methods to translate evidence-based interventions to real-world service systems of care.

Prior to his move to Utah in 2020, Dr. Smith was Associate Director of the Center for Prevention Implementation Methodology for Drug Abuse and HIV, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and Co-Director of the Program in Dissemination and Implementation Science in Northwestern University’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute. He leads effectiveness-implementation hybrid trials testing the integration of behavioral health interventions in primary care, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States Department of Agriculture, and the Woman’s Board of Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and also leads a study on guideline implementation for hypertension in pediatric primary care funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

Dr. Smith’s work in implementation science spans many areas across the lifespan. He chairs the Implementation Science Working Group of NCI’s IMPACT Research Consortium, is on the Steering Committee for the Inter-Centers for AIDS Research Implementation Science Working Group, and serves as the lead implementation scientist on projects supported by National Institute of Mental Health, National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, National Institute of Justice, Health Resources and Services Administration, and foundations. Dr. Smith has collaborated with Dr. Matthew Smith since 2015 and leads the implementation evaluation for projects in the Level Up Lab funded by NIMH, NIJ, and the Kessler Foundation.

Dr. Smith received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the University of Tennessee Knoxville in 2011, completed his predoctoral clinical internship at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and then completed postdoctoral research fellowships at the Prevention Science Institute at the University of Oregon and at the Institute for Research and Education Advancing Children’s Health (REACH) at Arizona State University. He is a Fellow of the NIMH-funded Implementation Research Institute and serves as Associate Editor of the journal Prevention Science and Associate Editor for Implementation Research of the journal Families, Systems, & Health.