G. Richard Smith, M.D., is director of the Psychiatric Research Institute, chairman of the UAMS Department of Psychiatry and the holder of the Marie Wilson Howells Chair of the Department of Psychiatry in the UAMS College of Medicine. He received his medical degree from UAMS in 1977 and completed a fellow ship at Strong Memorial Hospital (Rochester, N.Y.) He returned to UAMS in 1981 and served as chairman of the Department of Psychiatry from 2000-2013 when he was named dean of the UAMS College of Medicine, a position he held until 2015. He returned to his role as chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and director of PRI in 2018. Dr. Smith developed several programs at UAMS, including the Division of Health Services Research (now the Center for Health Services Research), the nation’s largest research group dedicated to mental health and substance abuse services research. Dr. Smith was the founding director of the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement and a leader in securing the state’s tobacco settlement to improve health care for Arkansans.