Vanessa Dimayuga Smith MDAdvisor

Dr. Smith graduated summa cum laude from the University of Kentucky with a bachelor’s degree in biology. During this time, she conducted extensive research in neurobiology while completing her undergraduate studies in 2.5 years. Prior to attending medical school, she was awarded a prestigious J. William Fulbright Scholarship to further pursue neurodegenerative research at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience in Amsterdam. She was accepted to several top medical schools and chose to attend Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, where she was a recipient of the Mayo Dean’s Outstanding Achievement Full Tuition Scholarship. During this time, Dr. Smith was extensively involved in medical school candidate recruitment and served as a member of the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine Admissions Committee.

Following completion of her internship at the Mayo Clinic, she returned to her hometown of Lexington and completed an anatomic pathology residency, followed by a neuropathology fellowship at the University of Kentucky. Academically, she has presented her research at several national and international meetings and has been published in multiple peer-reviewed journals. She also directed and taught several didactic curricula for pathology, neurosurgery and neurology residents, receiving a departmental teaching award for her efforts in resident education.

Dr. Smith has extensive teaching as well as research and career mentoring experience at the premedical, medical school, and residency levels. She has successfully assisted numerous premedical students in the medical school admissions process and is enthusiastic in helping applicants succeed in becoming physicians.