Roger D. Smith, M.D. graduated from Stanford University and the University of Southern California School of Medicine. He did a surgical internship at Los Angeles County Hospital before serving in Viet Nam with the Marine Corps. After finishing his military obligation, he had a one year surgery residency at Tulane University and a five year neurosurgery residency at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix. During and after residency, he spent two years in Zurich and London studying cerebrovascular diseases and microneurosurgery. He was a fulltime member of the LSU Department of Neurosurgery for 14 years and was in private practice and part time with the medical school for 8 years before joining Ochsner in 2001. He is currently Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery at Tulane and Chairman of the combined Tulane-Ochsner Department of Neurosurgery and neurosurgical training program. He has served as President of the Louisiana Neurosurgical Society, the Orleans Parish Medical Society, and more recently as President of the Louisiana State Medical Society.

His clinical interests are primarily in cranial and functional neurosurgery. He treats cerebrovascular diseases such as aneurysms and vascular malformations, brain tumors both benign and malignant, pituitary tumors, and works with the Movement Disorders Center at Ochsner performing Deep Brain Stimulation for Parkinson's Disease and other movement disorders. He is experienced in managing trigeminal neuralgia and other pain syndromes. He remains deeply involved in medical education and residency training and in health care system reform.