Douglas Smith grew up in the Texas panhandle town of Phillips, home to one of the largest oil refining operations in the world. Life in Phillips centered around high school football, fishing and hunting and more high school football. After enduring 22 panhandle winters, he moved to Austin.

Prior to joining the faculty at ACC, Mr. Smith worked for the City of Amarillo, Austin Research Engineers, Widelite, Tracor and Texas State Technical College (Amarillo). In 1989, Doug Smith and Tony Ramirez co-founded the Authorized AutoDesk (CAD) Training Center at ACC, now known as Austin's CAD Learning Center.

Mr. Smith holds a Masters degree from the University of Texas at Austin, a Bachelors degree from Texas State University and an Associates degree from Texas State Technical College.

Mr. Smith is the A&E CAD Department Chair and Director of Austin's CAD Learning Center. His office is in room 3229 of the Northridge Campus.