Susan Smith is an ordained minister and scholar who has spent the past forty years based in Southeast Asia. From 1999 to 2017, she was the Executive Director of an educational foundation producing materials in Pashto, Dari and English. Susan continues to use her cultural and linguistic skills to design and edit academic books for adults and children in English and Pashto. She was the copyeditor for the revised Dari New Testament (2023), and she is a consultant on the revision of the Dari Old Testament.

Her doctoral thesis explored the ways in which Muslim and non-Muslim (Christian, Baha'i and Sikh) women exercise influence in a conservative Islamic society not accustomed to having women in leadership roles in higher educational, governmental and other institutions. She is currently engaged in postdoctoral research exploring female honour and shame through the eyes of Southeast Asian women.