Michelle Smirnova, Phd

Michelle Smirnova is an award-winning sociologist, professor, author, and activist based in Kansas City, MO. Her critically acclaimed book, The Prescription-to-Prison Pipeline (Duke, 2023), provides an over-overlooked perspective on the "opioid epidemic": from those who have been criminalized for their use. Similar to other projects, 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, Lean Into Tension: How to Grow a Housing Justice Movement (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 2024-2029, Dr. Smirnova is the qualitative lead on the $1.3 million KC Violence Prevention Fund evaluation team, seeking to center the perspective of people impacted by gun violence to  understand what they see as the root causes of gun violence and how we might address them. 

Dr. Smirnova is the child of Russian Jewish refugees, an experience that shaped her understanding of the subjugated knowledge as well as the malleability of race, ethnicity, collectivities, and boundaries. She 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. She worked as a research sociologist at the US Census Bureau from 2011-2013 and has worked as a fellow for the Frameworks Institute since 2015.