Faculty & Staff

Dr. Simmons' research interests include examining the mental, physical, and financial well being of low-income, rural women and their families, improving rural women’s access to health care, health behaviors and decision-making during the perinatal and postpartum periods, and combining quantitative and qualitative research methodologies to shape new, integrated models of health and poverty programs and policy. She has published and presented nationally and internationally in the areas of the psychological well being of rural women, the effects of poverty on health status for rural residents, and mental health care policy.

Some of Dr. Simmons' ongoing research projects include:
(a) Postpartum Weight Retention among Rural Women in Kentucky (PI);
(b) Health Behaviors and Decision-Making during Pregnancy among Rural Women in Kentucky (PI);
(c) "Rural Families Speak," a multi-state longitudinal study of rural families (Investigator); and
(d) Supporting Positive Pregnancy Outcomes in Rural Towns (Co-PI).

Dr. Simmons is also the recipient of the National Institues of Health Health Disparities Loan Repayment Program (2005-2009).  She is currently funded by the Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health program (NIH/NIDA, PI Ferguson). Additionally, Dr. Simmons is working collaboratively with faculty in the College of Medicine to develop an integrated substance abuse and prenatal care program for women in Appalachian Kentucky.

Both at the University of Kentucky and nationally, Dr. Simmons has been recognized for her research and contributions to the field. In addition to her work in Family Studies, Dr. Simmons holds a joint appointment in the College of Public Health, Department of Health Services Management, and faculty affiliations with the UK Center on Poverty Research and the Center for the Advancement of Women's Health. In 2005, Dr. Simmons was one of 20 women faculty selected to participate in UK's Circles of Power, Women Faculty in Leadership Program. In 2004, she was recognized by the National Council on Family Relations by becoming the first person in the history of the organization to receive both the Outstanding Student/New Professional Award and the Graduate Research/Dissertation Award in the same year. In 2005, Dr. Simmons was designated a health disparities scholar through the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities/National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Simmons is an active member of the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, where she served as the chair of the Public Policy Committee (2006-07); the American Public Health Association, where she serves as the secretary to the mental health section; the Rural Sociological Society; and the Society for the Psychology of Women. In 2003, she served as a Congressional Fellow in the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions where she worked on issues affecting low-income people, including Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, the Community Services Block Grant, the Social Services Block Grant, and the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act.