Overview
Kathy Simmonds joined the faculty at Northeastern in 2022 after over two decades at the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions (IHP), where she coordinated the Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner program. Dr. Simmonds has worked as a clinician in a variety of community settings including health centers, Planned Parenthood, a migrant health clinic, and 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. She was a founding member of the national organization Reproductive Health in Nursing, and served on the Steering Committee of the MGHIHP Center for Climate Change, Climate Justice, and Health, and the Alliance for Nurses for Healthy Environments (AHNE) 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 impacts of climate change on health. In 2022, she was named a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing.
In her role as Associate Director of Health Programs, Dr. Simmonds is leading the development of rural health and health workforce initiatives at Northeastern’s Roux Institute.
Selected Publications
Corpuz, J. & Simmonds, K. (2022). Empowering the Nurse Practitioner with the Reproductive Justice Framework. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners.
Auerbach, S., Minahan-Coleman, K., Alspaugh, A., Atzlan-Keahey, A., Stern, L. & Simmonds, K. (2022). Critiquing the Unintended Pregnancy Framework. Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health.
Simmonds, K., Breakey, S., & Nicholas, P. K. (2021). Educating Nurse Practitioners About Climate Change, Health, and Climate Justice. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nurpra.2021.10.006
Simmonds, K., Jenkins, J., White, B., Nicholas, P., & Bell, J. (2021). Health impacts of climate change on gender diverse populations: A scoping review. The Journal of Nursing Scholarship.
Simmonds, K., Erickson-Owens, D., & Schwartz-Barcott, D. (2021). Nurse Practitioners’ and Certified Nurse-Midwives Experiences Providing Comprehensive Early Abortion Care in New England. Health Care for Women International. doi.org/10.1080/07399332.2021.1929991
Courses Taught
Honors in the Studio: Social Innovation and Rural Health
Rural Health Interdisciplinary Seminar
