About Smith Research
Smith School faculty members produce research published in top journals and cited by top scholars. Maryland Smith Research highlights the best of this work, focusing on papers published in the 50 business journals used in the Financial Times Research Rank. Maryland Smith is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world for the research that faculty members contribute each year.
About the Editor
Karen Johnson came to the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business after a 20-year career in newspapers. She has written and edited for publications in the U.S. and Canada, including The Wall Street Journal, Canada’s Globe and Mail, the McClatchy Newspaper Company, the Detroit Free Press and the Associated Press. She earned a Pulitzer Prize for her role in editing the Panama Papers, a global investigative reporting project coordinated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
She is passionate about storytelling and education. Editing Smith Brain Trust, she says, is the perfect merger of those two passions. “Every time I speak to our professors, I can’t help but ask, ‘What else are you thinking about or working on these days?’ They have great answers.”
She loves stories that educate, enlighten and challenge assumptions. She appreciates how good storytellers — and good professors — can take complex, wonky issues and make them accessible and engaging.
Email her at kjohns38@umd.edu with questions, comments or story ideas.
Meet Our Team
Smith Brain Trust features bite-sized business insights from the faculty at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. Editorial staff members provide support.
Carrie Handwerker
Public Relations and Marketing Manager
Carrie Handwerker works to raise the profile of the Smith School in the news media. As part of these duties, she manages partnerships with the Washington Post’s Capital Business newspaper and Maryland Public Television. Prior to joining the Smith School in 2006, she worked as an editor at a daily business newspaper in Baltimore, Md.
Greg Muraski
Media Relations Specialist
Greg Muraski brings more than 20 years of experience to his media relations role. He began as a small-market radio and newspaper reporter. Before coming to the University of Maryland in 2011, he worked in the communications office at Columbus State University in Georgia.