Ford-Smith, who studied theatre at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison, was a co-founder and artistic director of
Sistren Theatre Collective, a community theatre group of working-class Jamaican women established in 1977. Sistren created its own plays collaboratively, and performed in Jamaica and abroad; the group also worked extensively in
community theatre and
popular education, particularly around issues affecting women. Sistren played a leading role in the Caribbean women's movement, providing feminist analysis of women's issues in Jamaica and entering into transnational alliances with women's organizations in the Caribbean region, North America, the UK, and Europe. Ford-Smith was also a member of the Groundwork Theatre Company, created in 1980 as the repertory arm of the Jamaica School of Drama; it became an autonomous company in 1987. Ford-Smith moved to
Toronto in 1991, receiving her doctorate in education from the
University of Toronto in 2004. She continues to write, to work in theatre and to teach in Toronto. ==References==