Jack Simons
- Associate Professor, School Counseling
Dr. Jack Simons, Associate Professor with tenure, graduated from University of Missouri-St. Louis with a doctorate in counseling in 2015. He began working at Mercy University in 2016. Dr. Simons has authored papers and assessments, and his work shows how important attitudes, identity, and resilience are to promote wellness and academic success among minorities. His career includes work in educational settings; hospitals; and the Frances McClelland Institute for Children, Youth, and Families at the University of Arizona. Dr. Simons has been nominated for both teaching and research awards, and he was recognized by the Western Association of Counselor Education and Supervision for his scholarship in Multicultural Counseling. In 2020, Dr. Simons received a Texaco Endowment Research Endowment Award to study STEM identity development at Mercy University. His teaching interests include human growth and development, group counseling, assessment, and research.
Ph.D., University of Missouri - St. Louis
B.A., Saint Louis University
Dr. Simons is currently leading a study titled Stress, Identity, and Coping Among Transgender and Gender Non-Binary People. Gender minority individuals continue to suffer disparities in health outcomes compared to cisgender peers. Social changes have significantly changed the developmental trajectories of today's gender minority people, requiring we re-examine our knowledge of stress and health in this population. Documenting differences in identity, stress, and health will help improve provision of counseling services and achieve the public health service goal of reducing health disparities related to gender identity.
As a core faculty member in the Department of Counseling, Dr. Simons provides graduate level instruction. Additionally, he serves as the lead coordinator of the Advancing STEM Achievement Project.
Simons, J. D., Hahn, S., Pope, M., & Russell, S. T. (2021). Lived school experiences:
Sexual minority educators. Journal of Gay and Lesbian Social Services.
Simons, J. D., Grant, L., & Rodas, J. (2021). Transgender people of color: Experiences
and coping during the school-age years. Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling.
doi: 10.1080/15538605.2021.1868380
Simons, J. D., Ramdas, M., & Russell, S. T. (2020). School-age coping: Themes across three
generations of sexual minorities. Journal of School Counseling, 18(22).
http:/www.jsc.montana.edu/articles/v18n22.pdf
Simons, J. D., & Cuadrado, M. (2019). Narratives of school counselors regarding advocacy for
LGBTQ students. Professional School Counseling, 22(1), 1-9. doi:10.1177/2156759X19861529
2022 NRMN NIH Grant Training Program Participant
2021-2023 NSF Quantitative Research Methods Program at the University of Maryland
2021 Winter Institute in Computational Social Science at the University of Arizona
2020-2021 American Educational Research Association Early Career Mentee Program
2018 Dr. Eugene Owen Scholarship
2015 Western Association for Counselor Education and Supervision Research Award