Janie Ray Smith specializes in supporting schools and districts through consulting and workshop experiences focused on Understanding by Design and site-based work for instructional leadership for teachers and principals. Areas of expertise include Understand by Design, teacher leader training, and assessment. She is also involved in the merging of instructional planning approaches for Understanding by Design and Differentiated Instruction.

Janie Smith has presented at institutes and workshops for the National Staff Development Council and NASSP. She has worked with schools and districts across the country as well as in Asia and the U.S. State Department's American Overseas Schools in Europe, Africa, and South America.

A career, experienced administrator in Fairfax County, Virginia Public Schools a large urban/suburban district, Janie Smith served as Director of High School Instruction and K-12 Curriculum Services for 13 years. As a director of instruction, she led many efforts to enhance school instructional programs through aligning curriculum and training with state standards, reforming Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate program enrollment, considering various approaches to school day and year scheduling and reforming high school course curriculum. She also served as a principal and assistant principal at the middle and high school level, as well as a teacher of English and journalism.

Smith has completed post-master's work in educational administration and leadership at the University of Virginia. She holds BS and MA degrees in journalism and English from Mississippi University for Women. She was a participant in the Norham Center for Educational Leadership, Oxford University, England in 1994 and has taught graduate courses in secondary curriculum, evaluation and assessment for educational administration programs at the University of Virginia and George Mason University.