Dr. jw Smith was born totally blind on the Southside of Chicago, Illinois in 1959. He attended regular public schools and after moving to Gary, Indiana as a teenager, he received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Indiana University and Purdue University, respectively. After graduating with his PhD from Wayne State University in Detroit in 1989, he assumed his first full-time teaching position at Indiana University-South Bend. He is presently a faculty member at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. After changing his major four times in the first two years of his undergraduate experience, in 1979 while sitting in a Communication Studies course, jw decided that he too wanted to be a professor much like the teacher that was leading the class that day. This decision culminated in 1989 with his PhD and thus his academic journey began. He has spent the last 30 years inspiring, challenging, encouraging, and shaping the lives of thousands of students.
