Michelle Smirnova, Phd

Michelle Smirnova is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Rice University and the inaugural Director of the Center for Housing and Neighborhoods at the Kinder Institute for Urban Research. She also works as a research fellow for the Frameworks Institute.

Her critically acclaimed book, The Prescription-to-Prison Pipeline (Duke, 2023), provides an often-overlooked perspective on the "opioid epidemic": from those who have been criminalized for their use. Similar to her other work, she seeks to learn from and build power with those who have had their knowledge discredited or silenced by systems of power. You can read more about The Prescription-to-Prison Pipeline and her second book, Tenant Power: How to Grow a Housing Justice Movement, which is under contract with Princeton University Press, on the Books page. Most of her other research has been published as peer-reviewed articles, but she has also appeared in public outlets like NPR, The Washington Post, and The Hill.

From 2024-2025, Dr. Smirnova served as the qualitative lead on the $1.3 million KC Violence Prevention Fund evaluation team, seeking to center the perspectives of people impacted by gun violence to understand what they see as the root causes of gun violence and how we might address them together. 

She serves on the Board of Trustees for Kansas City Community Land Trust and previously served on the Board of Trustees for The Kansas City Public Library from 2020 to 2025. She worked at the US Census Bureau as a Research Sociologist from 2011-2013.

Dr. Smirnova earned her dual BA in International Relations and Psychology from Washington University in St. Louis and her MA and PhD from the University of Maryland, College Park.