Adele Simmons

Adele Smith Simmons (born June 21, 1941) is an American academic, business director, philanthropist, academic administrator, the third president of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, from 1977 to 1989 and the second president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation from 1989 to 1999. Simmons also served as the dean of student affairs at Princeton University, from 1972 to 1977, where she was the first female dean.

Simmons currently serves as the president of the Global Philanthropy Partnership, a Chicago-based organization that "provides information and resources to donors and donor advisors interested in addressing issues of global importance."

Biography Early life

Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Simmons graduated with a B.A. in 1963

Simmons, born Adele Dunlap Smith, was born on June 21, 1941, in Lake Forest, Illinois, to Hermon Dunlap Smith, former president of Marsh & McLennan who died in 1983, and Ellen Thorne, an ornithologist who died in 1977. Simmons later attended Garrison Forest School, an exclusive girls' boarding school outside Baltimore, Maryland. Simmons subsequently attended Oxford University in Oxford, England, where she graduated with a Ph.D. in African history in 1969. For her doctoral thesis, Simmons stayed on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, gathering material for a book and for her doctoral thesis. Simmons went on to work as a reporter for The Economist from 1968 to 1969, where she covered North Africa before returning to Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Career positions Simmons' past academic administrative positions include professor of African studies at Tufts University, dean of Jackson College for Women at Tufts University, professor of history at Princeton University, dean of student affairs at Princeton University (1972–77), Harvard University Harvard Board of Overseers board member (1972–79) where she was one of the first women elected, At Hampshire College, the Adele Simmons Hall (or ASH), a facility that is home to Hampshire's School of Cognitive Science, was named in her honor.

Other administrative positions

Simmons has also held several other administrative positions throughout her career. "Mrs. Simmons also served as a director of Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., since 1978 until May 20, 2015. She served as president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, from 1989 to 1999. She previously served as a director of ShoreBank. She served as a director of First Chicago Corporation, since 1990 and The First National Bank of Chicago, a subsidiary of First Chicago Corporation. She served as a director of First Chicago NBD, since December 1995.

Simmons is the current president of the Global Philanthropy Partnership. Simmons serves as a senior associate of the Center for International Studies at the University of Chicago and vice chair of Chicago Metropolis 2020 (Metropolis Strategies). She serves as a director of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Synergos Institute, the Rocky Mountain Institute, the Global Fund for Women, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and The American Prospect. She serves as advisory trustee of Environmental Defense Fund. She is chair of the committee to visit the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University, a member of the Advisory Board of the World Bank Institute and a senior advisor to The World Economic Forum."

Personal life Simmons, then Adele Dunlap Smith, married John Leroy Simmons on September 18, 1966.