Ethel Hale Freeman was a Professor of Elocution at Smith College from 1911-1917. She specialized in teaching modern drama at a time when the Elocution department emphasized teaching theatricality of voice with less emphasis on voice correction. 

Vera Sickels was a Spoken English instructor from 1923-1953. Specializing in phonetics and oral interpretation of literature, she served as chair of the department for many years and, along with Elizabeth Jane Dorsey and Elizabeth Avery, co-authored one of the main textbooks used by the department titled First Principles of Speech Training. At the time, this text was referred to by some as the “bible of speech training." 

Emily Hale was an Assistant Professor of Spoken English from 1936-1942 during the department’s voice correction campaign. She specialized in teaching drama and believed that voice and speech training possessed the transformative power to grow students’ confidence and self-esteem.   

William Allan Neilson served as the President of Smith College from 1917-1939. He was an outspoken supporter of the Spoken English department through some of its most active years conducting voice exams and voice correction work on campus (late 1910s - mid 1940s). Neilson oversaw the appointment of inter-departmental faculty members to assist with conducting voice and speech tests.  

Alexander Graham Bell was a Spoken English department lecturer at Smith College from 1917-1921. He also taught at the neighboring Northampton Clarke School for the Deaf in the 1870s. He was a prominent eugenicist who believed that Deaf people should be separated from society and from one another to prevent any potential spread of hereditary deafness and to prevent the development of sign language. He was a leading figure in the Oralism movement, founded on the belief that Deaf people should be banned from using sign language and required to assimilate into mainstream speaking society by learning to speak and use lip-reading.