Priscilla A. Smith was born in Hartford Connecticut. She attended Texas Tech University on an athletic scholarship as a Pre-med/Biology major, and, compelled to take an art class subsequently redirected her degree plan to Art the next semester. She received a B.F.A. cum laude in Studio Art from the Department of Art. After a short stint as a Medical Photographer, Priscilla attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign receiving an M.F.A with honors in Photography.

Priscilla teaches full time in the University of Delaware's Department of Art. In addition to standard class instruction, she has designed two location photography programs that enable students to photograph in New Zealand and Vietnam. Prior to teaching in Delaware, Priscilla taught in Illinois, Texas, New York, and Italy.

Smith's work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in solo and group exhibitions. Her work has been used as editorial photography in books and published in magazines and journals. Priscilla's work documenting treasure discovered aboard a civil war era shipwreck was published in National Geographic in 2004.

Priscilla has received a Light Work Artists Grant and two Delaware Division of the Arts Individual Artists Fellowships. Her photographs are in collections including Eastman Kodak, American Express, Philadelphia Museum of Art, W. R. Grace, Woodmere Art Museum, Munson-Proctor-Williams Institute.