Michael Ray Smith

Michael Ray Smith

A former Research Fellow and then chair at LCC International University, Smith served as full professor of communication and author; most of his work concerns journalism, Christianity and media.

College Media Advisers presented Smith with Noel Ross Strader Memorial Award for exercising the principle of freedom of the press, as the award says, "at some risk to personal or professional welfare."

He taught in Tennessee at Lee University after a season in South Florida, not far from the posh island of Palm Beach and led Campbell University's publication to state and national recognition. Campbell University selected Smith for the first teaching excellence award for all the six schools of the university, which includes law and pharmacy.

World Journalism Institute named him the John McCandlish Phillips Scholar. Philips was the internationally-known reporter for The New York Times in the 1960s.

An award-winning journalist and photographer, he has been quoted in the New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, USA Today, The Arizona Republic, The Christian Science Monitor, The Louisville Courier-Journal, Editor & Publisher, Christianity Today, Writer's Digest and many other periodicals. He has been a guest on radio and TV including French TV 24, a Paris-based television broadcast.

Smith spent a decade working in the newsroom and three decades working in the classroom.

Shippensburg University, his graduate school, honored him as a Distinguished Alumnus of the Year, the highest award presented by the university; Prince George's Community College in suburban Washington, D.C., recognized him as one of its top 50 graduates.

He has presented workshops on writing in the United States and overseas including seminars on magazine writing for Magazine Training International in Manilla, Philippines, and Nairobi, Kenya.