Angela Smith, MD, MS Promoted to Professor with Tenure

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Angela Smith! With this promotion, Dr. Smith is the first female Professor with Tenure in the UNC Department of Urology and, to our knowledge, the youngest faculty member in a surgical discipline to achieve this rank at UNC.

Dr. Smith’s journey at UNC started as an undergraduate, with Bachelor’s degrees in Music Performance and Biostatistics, prior to matriculating to medical school where she achieved AOA honors before completing her residency training in urology in 2012.

Since joining the faculty, Dr. Smith has built up a busy practice in urologic oncology, recognized by her peers year-over-year in Castle Connolly’s Top Doctors, where she has also been recognized among “Exceptional Women in Medicine.”  She has served as the Director of Urologic Oncology since 2018, during which time the program has grown and thrived.

At this relatively early stage of her career, Dr. Smith has served as a highly visible international leader for the American Urological Association (AUA), as the Assistant Secretary for Latin America and the Caribbean and was recognized by the AUA as Young Urologist of the Year 2020.

Dr. Smith’s compassionate, patient-centered approach to clinical care informed her transformative research program, centering the voice and experience of patients in the research enterprise. A successful partnership with the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network (BCAN) identified patient-driven priorities in bladder cancer research, which ultimately led to her successful application for an $8.5 million PCORI award for comparative effectiveness of bladder cancer treatment options. This work has received numerous prestigious recognitions, including UNC’s Yang Family Biomedical Scholar, the UNC Phillip and Ruth Hettleman Prize for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement (featuring TEDx-style talks), the Best of BCAN Award, and the Society of Urologic Oncology Young Investigator Award.  Most recently, Dr. Smith was the 2022 recipient of the AUA Gold Cystoscope Award, recognizing the most outstanding contributions of a urologist within 10 years of completing training, arguably the most prestigious award internationally in our specialty.

As all who have the pleasure of working with Dr. Smith could attest, notwithstanding her many prestigious awards and recognitions, she remains an exceptionally authentic, humble, and kind servant leader.

• “Dr. Smith has continued assiduously on a track toward wide acclaim as a young academic urologist engaged in thoughtful and impactful translational population science and outcomes research.  Her sharp focus on bladder cancer comprises a thoughtful approach to critical aspects of the organization of medical care for affected patients, as well as the individual and aggregate behavior of their physicians amid the matrix of our complex and evolving health system.”
  

• “Dr. Smith is a beloved and dedicated teacher and mentor.  She provides each mentee with deeply engaged commitment and valuable allyship and sponsorship.  She is a frequent lecturer, both nationally and internationally.  As one of relatively few women surgeon-scientists in urologic oncology, she is especially critical as a role model for women trainees in urology residency and fellowship programs across the US – including my own.”
  

• “If past performance predicts future success, Dr. Smith will continue to leave her mark on our specialty and medicine in general.  She is a role model for all entering the field and specifically for women in urology.  Her work in bladder cancer is pivotal for understanding that disease process.  Her ability to connect with those around her as well as her general passion for making a difference will lead her to more notable achievements.”
  

• “Dr. Smith is an internationally renowned urologic oncologist.  She is widely regarded as the leading expert in patient-centered outcomes research in bladder cancer.”