Mallory Smith was a freelance writer and editor specializing in environmental, social justice, and healthcare-related communications. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University and worked as a senior producer at Green Grid Radio, an environmental storytelling radio show and podcast. Her radio work has been featured on KCRW, National Radio Project, and State of the Human. She died at the age of twenty-five on November 15, 2017, two months after receiving a double lung transplant.