Kori Lynn Smith

Kori graduated Valedictorian from Chuckey-Doak High School and is the daughter of Gena Milligan and granddaughter of Jimmy & Nancy Waddell.  Kori has participated in over thirty missionary trips to Haiti, where she worked with children in the orphanages and hospitals alongside her life-long mentor, Phyllis Newby.

Kori received her undergraduate degree from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, where she majored in Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology and minored in International Agriculture and Resources. She earned the Dean’s List at UTK every semester and worked in a research program under Dr. Gladys Alexandre studying cancer cell metabolism. Her research is published under the department head of Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular biology for Nitrogen Fixation and Flagellar Rotation of Azospirillum Brasiliense.

After completing her undergraduate degree at UT, she participated in a 10-month ministry and leadership training program with Thrive Residency Knoxville, where she worked in a full-time ministry position, taking graduate level seminary and non-profit administration courses toward a Masters degree. Kori later received her graduate certificate from East Tennessee State University for Global Health and is currently completing a Masters of Public heath there as well.

Kori recently graduated from Trevecca University in the Physician Assistant Program.  She has accepted her first role as part of a Physician Assistant Fellowship in Hospital Medicine at Mass General Brigham, within the Harvard Medical School teaching system, in Boston, Massachusetts.