Rita R. Smith-Wade-El is Professor, Psychology Department, Director of African American Studies, faculty, Women Studies Program and creator and co-coordinator of the Ethnic Studies Learning Community Freshman Year Experience, Millersville University.  She teaches courses in Psychology, African American Studies, and Women’s Studies. Dr. Smith is a consultant in the areas of African Americans, Racism, Race Relations, and Women Studies for various private, city and state institutions. She researches and has published on Learned Helplessness, Race as a Self Schema, African American History, Multicultural Education and Black Male-Female Relationships. She is advisor for Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated and the NAACP, MU College Chapter. She serves on the University Theme Committee, the Cultural Affairs Committee, the Commission on Cultural Diversity Committee (of which she is presently Secretary and chaired for several years), the GERC Diversity Requirement Committee, the Freshman Book Committee, the Undergraduate Research Conference Committee and the Student-Faculty Research and Faculty Development Campaign Committee. She is chair of the Black Culture Celebration Committee.  Her community involvement includes Compeer, YWCA Racial Justice Committee (chair of subcommittee on Anti-bias curriculum), Safe Kids, and the Lancaster Branch of the NAACP (where she serves on the Executive Committee and chairs the Education Committee) and Church Women United. She has two sons Ayodele Nsilo and Ismail Muhammed.

Dr. Smith-Wade-El holds a B.A. from Barnard College, Columbia University, a M.A. and a Ph.D  from the University of Pennsylvania, all in Psychology. Her post-doctoral studies were at the Social Learning Laboratory at Educational Testing Services.