Smith received an MPA with a focus on International Relations and Security from the Woodrow Wilson School of International and Public Affairs at Princeton University in 2014. During graduate school he was part of a student group that traveled to Israel and Palestine, UK, Oslo, and Geneva with Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer to research Track-II Diplomacy, and was one of the authors of the resulting report. He was also part of a small group of Princeton students who met with Iranian Ambassador to the UN on nuclear negotiations. He is currently working at Participant Media (producer of Countdown to Zero) managing the political/social action campaigns around their film releases.