Celebrating the Career of Kathy Smith
After nearly 30 years of service, Assistant Department Business Officer Kathy Smith has retired from the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, effective August 31, 2026.
Since joining the department in 1999, Smith has been a driving force supporting the department’s growth and success. For more than 25 years, she helped build and adapt the financial and operational foundation needed to advance the department’s clinical, educational, academic, and research missions.
Known for her deep institutional knowledge, collaborative approach, and unwavering dedication, Smith leaves behind a thriving department and a legacy as an empathetic and tireless expert in the School of Medicine.
“Kathy was our business office north star whom I (we) will profoundly miss as an integral member of our ‘Orthopedic work family,’” said Reid Abrams, MD, professor and interim chair. “Her uncanny sense of fairness was fundamental to her financial management of the department. She was extremely innovative in her thinking and persevered through our many financial challenges.”
“Kathy underscores and exemplifies the need for a leader to have a solid, trusted data and financial steward,” said Lisa P. Rhodes, MPH, who served as the department’s vice chair for administration from 2001 to 2018 and is now chief administrative officer for health campus development. “We’re a big institution and we’ll keep going, but Kathy leaves behind an incredible legacy. She is one of a kind.”
Prior to joining orthopedic surgery, Smith managed payroll for nearly 600 Department of Medicine personnel using paper timecards. She later advanced to compiling monthly divisional reports on the department’s funds for the School of Medicine and earned a reputation for excellence before joining Orthopaedic Surgery as an administrative assistant focused on fund management.
When Rhodes joined the department in 2001, she and Smith used Smith’s groundwork as scaffolding to grow Orthopaedic Surgery’s financial infrastructure over the next several years.
“I was drawn to the challenge,” said Smith. “It kept me engaged. I liked the idea of solving problems and making things work.”
By 2003, Smith had taken on management of contracts, grants, and annual budgeting, and was promoted to assistant department business officer.
Smith helped guide the department through multiple generations of financial systems, continuously modernizing practices and processes to meet the evolving needs of a growing department and institution. One of her most significant contributions came during the university’s push for a major financial system conversion in 2021.
To help ensure a seamless transition, Smith personally reviewed more than 70,000 transactions spanning nearly two years, identifying and addressing issues before they could impact the department. She also served on campus-wide leadership committees that shaped the School of Medicine’s transition strategy and provided critical guidance on its implementation.
Each task was a step above and beyond, reflecting Smith’s exceptional attention to detail, deep sense of accountability, and unwavering commitment to protecting the department’s financial integrity.
Only a year prior, the COVID-19 pandemic had upended universities and healthcare operations worldwide, leading to lockdowns and disruptions to education, research, and clinical care. During this period of unprecedented uncertainty, Smith played a critical role in helping the department navigate rapidly evolving guidance from local, state, and federal authorities, as well as directives from UC San Diego.
She provided essential financial analysis, operational oversight, and strategic support across the department’s clinical, research, and academic missions, helping leadership make informed decisions in real time. Her steady presence and analytical expertise helped ensure continuity and supported the department to emerge from the pandemic resilient and poised for further growth.
Early in her tenure, Smith championed initiatives that invested in staff development. At the same time, she played a key role in modernizing the department’s faculty compensation structure, helping create a model that provided improved clinical faculty with greater transparency and flexibility.
Over the years, Smith become one of the department’s experts in funds flow and faculty compensation. As the department expanded in size and complexity, so too did Smith’s recommendations for annual refinement.
Beyond her financial expertise, Smith has also supported academic advancement, merit, and promotion, contracts and grants, service agreements, and other operational tasks.
“Kathy has touched virtually every aspect of this department,” said Cheryl Correia, vice chair for administration since 2019. “She has an extraordinary ability to understand both the big picture and the smallest details. It truly has been an honor to work alongside her and watch her shine. What she has accomplished over the past 26 years will continue on far past her retirement.”
According to her colleagues, Smith’s financial and business acumen are matched only by her empathy, a skill that endeared her to other working mothers in the office and provided her keen insight into the human behaviors driving financial decisions.
The daughter of a Navy pilot and a “Gray Lady,” a group of female American Red Cross volunteers who drew their name from their gray dress uniform, Smith grew up moving frequently across the U.S. The repeated changes in scenery exposed her to various sub-cultures and locales, including San Diego.
“I would say I had an ideal childhood,” Smith said. “I got to see and gain an appreciation for different parts of the country. As kids we would spend every summer on Long Beach Island with my grandmother, and around the corner were my other grandparents. I was with family all the time in the summer.”
Within the business office, Smith found a similar camaraderie with close colleagues. Without fail, her favorite memories from her career focus on human connection, such as an office painting workshop or a shared moment laughing over mismatched shoes put on in the dark to respect a sleeping spouse.
“You get to be yourself,” said Smith. “That’s what I treasure about working here, and that’s what I’m going to miss.”
The department’s approach to leadership also provided Smith space to grow with guidance and self-direction.
“I’ve been incredibly blessed to work with Dr. Steven Garfin, Lisa Rhodes, Cheryl Correia and Dr. Reid Abrams, who all mentored me and helped me grow,” Smith said. “It’s just been such a positive experience working here with Orthopaedic Surgery.”
