Kathy Simmonds, PhD, MPH, RN, WHNP-BC comes to the Roux/Bouve from the MGH Institute of Health Professions (IHP) in Boston, where she was an Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Women’s Health and dual Adult-Gerontology/Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner specialties. In 2015 she received the IHP’s Nancy Watts Award for Excellence in Teaching, and in 2020 was designated as a fellow in the Teaching Excellence in Academic Learning program. 

      Dr. Simmonds’ has worked as a clinician in a variety of community-based settings including community health centers, Planned Parenthood, a migrant health clinic, and most recently the Portland Community Free Clinic. From 1996-2007, she worked at the Abortion Access Project, where she directed the Reproductive Options Education Consortium for Nursing (ROE). She was a founding member of the national organization Reproductive Health in Nursing (now Nurses for Sexual and Reproductive Health). Dr. Simmonds is on the Steering Committee of the MGHIHP Center for Climate Change, Climate Justice, and Health, and co-chair of the Alliance for Nurses for Healthy Environments (AHNE) Global Climate Change Working Group. She is interested in the intersection of Reproductive Justice and Climate Justice, and has published numerous articles and book chapters on sexual and reproductive health, unintended pregnancy, abortion, and the impacts of climate change on health.  

Dr. Simmonds received her undergraduate degree from Cornell University, Master’s in Science in Nursing from the MGH Institute of Health Professions, Master’s in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health, and PhD from the University of Rhode Island. From 2014-2016 she was a Jonas Scholar, and an inaugural member of the American Academy of Nursing/Jonas Health Policy Scholar program. In 2022, she was named as a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing.

Kathy lives on Peaks Island with her husband, son, and a menagerie of furry and feathered creatures. She is thrilled to be joining the Roux Institute and Bouve College of Health Sciences to bring her energy to addressing health needs of rural Mainers and building health workforce capacity in the state.