Davis Smith was born in Cincinnati, Ohio  At the age of 9 months his family relocated to Tokyo, Japan for three years, then St-Germain-En-Laye, France for three years before returning to the United States.  He lived in Ross, California for 6 years where, he feels compelled to mention, his next-door neighbor was a Richmond cop.  In 1980 the family moved to Princeton, New Jersey where Smith attended Princeton High School.  He was rejected by Stanford but accepted by Brown from which he graduated in 1990 with an A.B. in an Independent Concentration titled "Plants and the Culture of Healing", a synthesis of Plant Biology, Religious Studies and Medical Anthropology.  Smith's thesis was on Tibetan Medicine. 

Smith graduated from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in 1997 and completed his Internal Medicine residency through the University of Connecticut Health Center Primary Care Program where he served a year as Chief Resident.  He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine (2000). 

He started at the Health Center during the 2000-2001 academic year, during which he worked one day a week.  In July 2001 he was hired to work full time as Staff Physician and Assistant Medical Director.  He was promoted to Medical Director in January 2003 and has served in that position since then.  He is very active in the American College Health Association and has presented on a variety of topics at both national and regional meetings.  He is also a member of the American College of Physicians.  He has taught medical students from UConn and residents from both UConn and the Middlesex Family Practice residency and was recently awarded a faculty appointment at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine.

His hobbies include playing squash and tennis, running, birding, gardening and cooking. He is married to a woman named Kendra Lawrence, who is also an Internist and practices in West Hartford.  Together they have have two daughters, Emma age 6 and Sydney age 4 as well as a dog, Genevieve.