Biography

Jennifer K. Smith is the Director of the University of Florida Center for Teaching Excellence. She has served as the Associate Director of Course production for UF Online, and as manager of Instructional Design Services at UF's Center for Instructional Technology and Training. Prior to her work at CITT, Mrs. Smith was a tenured Associate Professor at the University of Florida Theatre and Dance Department.

During her twelve years of teaching, she served as the Design Area Coordinator and the Costume Shop Manager. She taught courses in costume construction, pattern making, tailoring, crafts, and painting and dyeing. Mrs. Smith began teaching online in 2002 when she piloted TPA4239 Costume Pattern Making. This course made heavy use of Flash animations to explain the pattern making process. Mrs. Smith's publications include the CD tutorial, Pattern Making with PatternMaker: Volume I, the Bodice and Creating with PatternMaker. Professionally, Mrs. Smith has created patterns and tutorials for the software company, PatternMaker Software.

She has created patterns and supervised costume construction for performing arts companies such as the Los Angeles Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival in Boulder. Her creations have been worn by many performers including opera singers Placido Domingo and Denyce Graves as well as rock musician Prince. Mrs. Smith received her Master of Fine Arts degree in Theatre Production from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication and Theatre Arts came from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.