Born Ruth Jean Stubblefield in 1945, in a farm of sharecroppers in Grapeland, Texas; the baby of 12 children family headed by sharecroppers; great-great grandparents were slaves. Her mother ironed clothes and cleaned houses for a living; her father was a factory worker. Simmons was educated in segregated schools, first in Grapeland, and later in Houston. Divorced in 1989.

Professional Experience:

* President of Brown University, Providence, RI; professor in the Department of Comparative Literature and the Department of Africana Studies at Brown (2001-present) * President, Smith College, Amherst, MA (1995-2001) * Vice provost, Princeton University (1993-95) * Provost, Spelman College (1990-92) * Associate dean, Butler College, Princeton University (1987-90) * Assistant dean of the faculty, Butler College, Princeton (1986) * Acting director, Afro-American studies, Butler College, Princeton University (1985-86) * Director of studies, Butler College, Princeton University, eventually became associate dean of the faculty (1983-85) * Assistant and later associate dean of graduate studies at the University of Southern California (1979-83) * Visiting associate professor of Pan-African studies and acting director of international programs, California State University in Northridge (1977-79) * Assistant professor of French, and later, assistant dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of New Orleans * Interpreter for the U.S. State Department

Education:

* Bachelor's degree in French, Dillard University in New Orleans, LA, 1967 (junior year was spent at Wellesley College in Mass.) * Master's degree in Romance languages in literature from Harvard University, 1970 * Ph.D. in Romance languages and literatures from Harvard University, 1973

Member of the following boards of directors:

* Ex-officio chair, board of governance, Annenberg Institute * Member, Women in Technology International advisory board * Carnegie Corporation * Pfizer Inc. * Texas Instruments * The Goldman Sachs Group * Member, Council on Foreign Relations

Partial list of honors:

* President's Award from the United Negro College Fund, 2001 * Teachers College Medal for Distinguished Service from Columbia University, 1999 * Centennial Medal from Harvard University, 1997 * CBS Woman of the Year, 1996 * NBC Nightly News Most Inspiring Woman, 1996 * German DAAD * Fulbright Fellowship to France

Selected publications:

* "My Mother's Daughter: Lessons I Learned in Civility and Authenticity," published in the Texas Journal of Ideas, History and Culture (fall/winter 1998) * Spelman Report, (looked at as a model for improving race relations on campuses), 1993 * Haiti: A Study of the Educational System of Haiti and a Guide to the Academic Placement of Students in Educational Institutions of the United States. PMDS-AACRAO. 1985

Links to Ideas: http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/americasbest/TIME/society.culture/pro.rsimmons.html and http://gos.sbc.edu/s/simmons.html

Quotations:

"Often students come to see me who don't feel like they belong in a so-called 'elite' college. I love to talk to students who have that mistaken belief, because everybody belongs. But there is a critical moment in your life when you need to have somebody explain to you why it is that you belong." - from USA Today, 2000

"I was a kid from very poor surroundings. My first encounter with wealth was perhaps the moment I walked in the schoolhouse door and I looked around and I saw this wonderful place where there were books and chairs and desks. Not only was there a wealth of material at my disposal, there was a guardian [Ida Mae Henderson kindergarten teacher] of all of this wealth who was cheerful and open-minded and who thought that I was wonderful, treated me as if I was really the most special person in the world. And that's what teachers do to children. They teach them that their mind is very special and that if they care for it they could do wonderful things with it." - from Brown Alumni Magazine, 2001

Nominating Speech:

Support true academic standards and reject punitive standardized testing that deprives schools of funding solely because of low test scores;

Support not penalize school districts that need extra help because they have many poor, minority or immigrant students;

Work to restore public education as an effective vehicle for social mobility, as it has been for so much of our country's history;

Open up many routes to higher education;

Improve teacher pay, dignity and respect;

Reject voucher systems and other privatization schemes;

Protect our students from commercial influences and marketing in their schools;

Understand that in addition to training for good jobs, the public education system must educate responsible, engaged citizens.