Marquita Smith

Marquita Smith is a Knight International Fellow who trained journalists in Liberia to track government spending.

Before her Fellowship, Smith was an editor at The Virginian Pilot . She joined the newspaper as a local government editor. She joined Knight-Ridder as a reporter for The Sun Herald in Biloxi, Miss., and later reported in the Washington, D.C. bureau.

She also reported for The Lexington Herald-Leader in Lexington, Ky., and worked as an assistant editor at The Montgomery Advertiser in Alabama. Smith has taught journalism at Hampton University in Hampton, Va., and Norfolk State University, where she currently is an adjunct professor.

She received a National Association of Black Journalists, United Nations and the Knight Foundation Liberia Fellowship in 2005. She has also been a Knight Center for Specialized Journalism Fellow, National Association Minority Media Executives Leadership and Development Fellow, Pew Center Civic Journalism Fellow, and Investigative Reporters and Editors Fellow. Smith has a bachelor's degree from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, and a master's in journalism from the University of Maryland.