CDR Ellen Smith began her career in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps in 2009 when she was commissioned as a SR-COSTEP officer. Upon graduation from Yale University School of Nursing in May 2010, she began her service to the Bureau of Prisons as a primary care and women's health care nurse practitioner at the Federal Correctional Institute in Danbury, Connecticut. CDR Smith served at FCI-Danbury for five years before transferring to the Federal Detention Center in Houston, Texas, and providing primary care to a population with historically high inmate turnover. In the summer of 2017, after completing her MPH through the University of California at Berkeley, CDR Smith took on the role of Infection Control & Quality Improvement Officer at FDC Houston. While serving there, she oversaw the prison's infectious disease surveillance programs and designed public health studies/interventions to improve health care delivery. She earned both her CPH and CIC certifications while in that role. CDR Smith was selected in September 2021 as National Infection Prevention & Control Consultant for the BOP, providing subject matter expertise to the field and helping guide and shape the BOP's infection prevention and control program. Beginning June 2022, she embarked on a role as Section Chief for the new Surveillance & Epidemiology section of the Population & Correctional Health Branch. In her new role, she leads efforts to improve health equity in the BOP through data analysis.