Douglas Smith grew up in the Texas Panhandle town of Phillips.  Because there was not much else to do, life in Phillips centered round football, fishing, hunting, and driving around aimlessly in his 1965 Chevy Impala Super Sport. After enduring too many cruel Panhandle winters, he wised up and moved to Austin in 1976.

Mr. Smith holds a Masters degree from the University of Texas at Austin, a Bachelors degree from Texas State University, and an Associate degree from Texas State Technical College although most of the really valuable things he knows were learned from his high-school wood shop teacher, Mr. Shuttlesworth.

Prior to joining the faculty at ACC, Mr. Smith worked for the City of Amarillo, Austin Research Engineers, Widelite, Tracor Aerospace, and Texas State Technical College (Amarillo). 

In 1989, Doug Smith and Tony Ramirez founded the Authorized AutoDesk (AutoCAD) Training Center at ACC, the first of its kind in central Texas.  In 2008, Doug and Tony co-authored a CAD-based textbook titled Technical Drawing 101 which is published by Pearson Prentice Hall.

 
Mr. Smith is the A&E CAD Department Chair as well as Director of ACC's CAD Learning Center. He is also the faculty advisor to ACC’s American Society for Engineering Education student chapter.