Smaranda is a PhD student in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and a Master of Arts in Education student at the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education. She is also a certified practitioner of Positive Psychology and a certified Mindfulness and Meditation teacher. She recently won an Outstanding Teaching award at the University of California, Santa Barbara and has taught Positive Psychology to happy students, young and old (ages 5-100), in places as far apart and different as Hawaii, Romania, and Myanmar. Smaranda is also the founder and creator of the UCSB Resilience Summit and Certificate Program.