William Simmons

About William Simmons

With more than three decades of impactful leadership experience, William Paul Simmons is an “outside the box” thinker and problem solver with an expansive vision for human rights, global education, and Higher Ed in the 21st century. An accomplished and empathetic leader, he is also an award-winning teacher and scholar with broad experience in both public and private institutions, as well as a significant record of international collaboration with NGOs, governments, and diverse marginalized communities.Dr. Simmons has extensive experience shaping compelling common visions and building diverse coalitions inclusive of faculty, students, staff, and community members. A consensus-builder and matchmaker between diverse stakeholders, he has in-depth experience with the nuts and bolts of twenty-first century academia, including educational technology, assessment, fundraising, grant writing, curriculum development, hiring, and promotion and tenure. He has been successful raising funds for social justice projects and has a record of balancing and stretching limited budgets. Hard-working and respectfully persistent, Dr. Simmons is a collaborative and generous leader devoted to shared governance and transparency; he is skilled at bringing the best out of people and finding ways for all stakeholders to contribute to the success of a project. Dr. Simmons is a dedicated mentor to students, faculty, staff, and community members, as well as a proud mentee and partner of so many academics and community members.

Experience

1. President, Board of Directors (Emeritus)

   Lost Boys Center For Leadership Development

   Aug 2013 — Present · Phoenix, AZ, US

   Overseeing one of the largest organizations working with the Lost Boys from Sudan, we have successfully changed our mission twice and dealt with numerous fundraising challenges. Currently we are centering an invaluable archive of testimonies gathered 30 years ago while the Lost Boys were in refugee camps in East Africa. We are raising funds, connecting individuals to their testimonial records, building an educational center in Juba, South Sudan, and developing a remembrance project to advance peace in South Sudan.

Education

• Louisiana State University

  Ph.D., Political Science

  1988 — 1996