Before assuming her current position in December 1999, Ms. Smith had been editor of the editorial page of The Asian Wall Street Journal since December 1995. She had joined the Asian Journal in early 1995 and was assigned to Hong Kong as deputy editorial page editor.

Before joining the Asian Journal, Ms. Smith was senior editor in Munich for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, where her assignments included covering the Soviet-Afghan war from a base in Islamabad, Pakistan. She has also worked at National Public Radio and the Voice of America. Ms. Smith was honored by the South Asian Journalists Association in 2003 with a first-place award, and in 1998 with a second-place award for outstanding editorial/op-ed articles on South Asia.

She received a bachelor's degree from Hollins College.