Her father worked as a floor trader in the Mercantile Exchange in Chicago, and most of her relatives worked in the financial district of Chicago. She graduated from Wheaton Warrenville South High School in 1998. She was the cross country team captain when she became a senior and earned three letters in cross country and two letters in track. She pursued her higher education at Louisiana State University. Alongside her education, she continued to run track & field during her time in college. She initially studied at Indiana State University in Bloomington before transferring to Louisiana State University.

Career

Sandra Smith began her career by delivering newspapers for a living. She then moved on to become an Associate Researcher at Aegis Capital, where she assisted and analyzed retail stocks, prepared newsletters for clients, and identified investment opportunities. After that, she worked as a Trader with Hermitage Capital Management, executing US options and equities orders, conducting portfolio analysis, and preparing reports for commission. She then became a Director of Institutional Sales with Terra Nova Institutional of Chicago, managing investments with hedge fund accounts, and developing trading programs and models for prospective and existing clients. Smith's television career began when she joined Bloomberg Television as a reporter, featuring on-air segments about derivatives and the equity market, contributing to analysis and breaking news, and writing for Bloomberg Press. In 2007, she joined the Fox Business Network as a reporter, appearing on the show Imus in the Morning hosted by Don Imus and frequently guesting on Fox Business Happy Hour.

In February 2020, Sandra Smith made headlines when she confronted Customs and Border Protection Deputy Commissioner Robert Perez over President Trump's decision to bar New York residents from Global Entry while flying. The rule came as a punishment for New York's "Green Light" law, which prevents the DMV from sharing data, including information about undocumented immigrants, with the federal government.