Kathryn Simons

Biography

Kathryn Simons provides wide-ranging administrative, financial, and human resources duties for Professors Iwnetim Abate, Robert J. Macfarlane, and Frances M. Ross and their research groups. Tasks include tracking student account assignments, purchasing lab equipment and supplies, managing travel planning, and working with the DMSE human resources office to process appointments and visas for visiting students and scholars. Before starting at DMSE in 2003, she was a staff assistant at the Harvard Institute for International Development. Previously, Simons directed the Speakers’ Bureau at Oxfam America, where she assigned country directors to visit colleges and universities across the United States to educate students and faculty about the aid agency’s efforts in developing countries. Outside of work, Simons is an enthusiastic skier, having grown up skiing with her family in the Adirondacks and throughout the US. In all seasons, when not running around in her Somerville neighborhood, Simons can be found at MIT’s Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center putting in miles on the stationary bikes. She has a bachelors’ degree in psychology with a concentration in communications from the University of New Hampshire and has taken masters-level courses in international development.