Stacey Smith

Dr. Stacey Smith serves as Associate Professor and Director of the Tourism and Hospitality Management Program within the Department of Applied Business Studies at Fort Hays State University's College of Business and Leadership. Her industry background in event planning and hotel operations provides practical grounding for her academic leadership.

Dr. Smith's educational credentials include:

• Ph.D. in Hospitality and Tourism Management from Purdue University
• M.S. in Hotel, Restaurant, and Travel Administration from University of Massachusetts - Amherst
• B.B.A. in Management from Fort Hays State University
• B.S. in Information Networking and Telecommunications from Fort Hays State University

Her research program centers on crisis preparedness for tourism industries, with significant contributions to understanding meeting planners' risk perceptions and operational resilience strategies. Additional investigations explore social media applications in tourism marketing, customer service training in lodging, and conventions management. Dr. Smith's work consistently bridges academic theory with operational practice through industry collaboration.

Publications spanning 2002-2010 reveal evolving research trajectories from hospitality education evaluation to contemporary crisis management frameworks, demonstrating sustained scholarly engagement with critical industry challenges. Her work appears in specialized journals including Journal of Convention & Event Tourism and Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Education.

As program director, Dr. Smith oversees curriculum development for tourism and hospitality degrees while teaching core courses in management, marketing, and operations. Her professional activities include active participation in I-CHRIE, AHLA, and Eta Sigma Delta, maintaining strong industry-academia connections. Students benefit from her dual expertise in academic research and frontline hospitality operations, particularly in crisis management applications.