Dean Smith

Dean Smith is Director of Duke University Press. His career in publishing spans more than 30 years and includes experience in scholarly, STM, university press, and trade- and association-based publishing. He brings a wealth of experience in leading digital publishing initiatives, business development and acquisition skills, open-access publishing, global sales and marketing expertise, and strategic planning skills. His career has evolved with the profession in a variety of roles including as press director, digital platform director, journal publisher, director of electronic publishing, vice president of sales, and marketing and society publisher. He was most recently the director of Cornell University Press—the first university press in America—overseeing a program that publishes 150 new books a year and features 3,400 e-books. He is a published author, poet, and freelance journalist. His book of poetry, American Boy (2000), is openly accessible. He published Never Easy, Never Pretty: A Fan, A City, A Championship Season(2013) with Temple University Press. He is an adjunct professor of publishing in the Masters in Professional Studies program at George Washington University. One of his all-time favorite moments was doing a public talk with John Cleese.