If there's one piece of advice Jen Smith has for her students at the University of Kentucky, it's this: "Don't listen to the voices telling you that journalism is dying or dead. It's just changing. And we have to change right along with it."

Smith, an award-winning journalist and faculty member in the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Kentucky, has seen her own career evolve just as journalism has evolved.

But one thing has remained constant about this profession she loves.

“There will always be a pivotal need for people who can gather information and break it down into digestible pieces for a broad audience,” Smith said. “There will always be a need for people willing to ask tough questions of powerful people and hold them accountable and provide a voice for the voiceless in our society. Most importantly, there will always be a need for people who love to tell the stories of their communities.”

Smith’s journalism career dates back to her time in high school. Throughout her high school days, Smith gained both on-camera and behind-the-scenes broadcast skills, ran a radio show during student lunch hour and served as managing editor of the student newspaper, The Crimson Record at DuPont Manual high school in Louisville, Kentucky.

Following high school graduation, Smith attended UK as a journalism major and became heavily involved with the Kentucky Kernel, the independent student newspaper on UK’s campus. At that time the Kernel was a daily newspaper, publishing a print edition five days a week on campus. This near-constant immersion into journalism left Smith with invaluable lessons in journalism and management before she even entered her post-grad career. At the Kernel, she gained firsthand experience in meeting firm deadlines, reporting on diverse and complex topics and managing peers, albeit sometimes “with challenges,” she joked. Additionally, she learned about budgeting, hiring and firing while still telling the stories of countless UK students, faculty and staff. Amidst the professional growth, she also formed lifelong friendships and even met her husband, making her time at the Kernel a memorable and enriching experience.

Smith took those experiences in both high school and college and turned them into a 20-plus year career as a sports reporter at the Lexington Herald-Leader, where she covered UK and Southeastern Conference football and UK women’s basketball. She also served as a copy editor, page designer and general assignment reporter, covering everything from the Kentucky Derby to high school sports to NASCAR. While in journalism, she won National Sports Media Association Kentucky Sports Writer of the Year in 2016 and 2017, a national Top 10 in beat writing from the Associated Press Sports Editors as well as numerous Kentucky Press Association honors, including Best Sports Story and Best Sports Feature Story in the same year. She also received the Outstanding Alumna Award from the College of Communication and Information. In 2019, Smith decided to return to UK and share her expertise and experiences with the next generation of journalists and was named the CI Faculty Teaching Excellence Award winner in 2023. She also recently took on the roles of sequence coordinator for the journalism program and internship coordinator for the School of Journalism and Media.

Even if she is no longer the one asking the tough questions and telling the stories that need telling, Smith is teaching and encouraging the next generation of journalists to do just that, to remember that journalism is neither dead nor dying and to follow their journalistic passions wherever they may lead.