Mikaela Smith

Smith serves as a Research Scientist for OPEN following the completion of her postdoctoral fellowship. Smith received her BA in Mathematics from Mount Holyoke College and her PhD and MA in Sociology from the University of California, Irvine, where she conducted comparative research of public investments in reproductive healthcare in the United States. Her research focuses on inequities in state reproductive healthcare policy, with a special interest in public opinion and policy.

Within OPEN, Smith co-leads the  Patterns in Abortion Use in Ohio and Surrounding States project with Dr. Alison Norris and co-leads the  Reproductive Health in Ohio: The Ohio Survey of Women project with Dr. Robert Hood. She has also contributed to the Investigating Ohio’s High Infant Mortality project, and the Ohio Profile of Contraceptive Access and Use project.

Smith has received funding from the Society of Family Planning to analyze interstate travel for abortion post-Dobbs and from the National Institute for Reproductive Health to support a community-engaged project assessing the pregnancy-related mortality implications of Ohio’s abortion bans.