Deborah Krauss Smith has served congregations of varying denominations as a church musician for over 36 years. Currently, she is Organist/Director of Music Ministries at St. John's United Church of Christ in Monroe Wisconsin, having served other churches in Monroe and Madison. Besides being an organist, her work has encompassed establishing and directing large church music programs that included vocal choirs of all ages, handbell choirs, instrumentalists, soloists and ensembles, and writing/arranging music for those groups. In years past, she has also worked as a public school music specialist, maintained a private piano/organ studio, and did adjudicating for the Wisconsin School Music Association.

A summa cum laude vocal music education graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Deb has a double applied major in both organ and voice, having begun organ studies in Monroe with the late Merruth Seaton, continuing with Jerry Evenrud and David O. Parsons while at UW-EC, and then with Lawrence G. Kelliher, now retired from Bethel Lutheran Church in Madison. A member of the American Guild of Organists, Deb has also served on board of directors of the Madison-based Association of Church Musicians (ACM), and currently is ACM's webmaster and e-mail database coordinator.

The granddaughter of Swiss and German immigrants to Green County, she has directed the Monroe Swiss Singers mixed choir since 1985 and the Männerchor New Glarus from 1995 through 2006. Deb and her husband, Greg, live with an assortment of cats, dogs and goats on their 160-acre grain farm north of Monroe.