Dr. Simmons completed six internships with ExxonMobil before they offered her full-time employment. She held various roles at ExxonMobil, starting as an environmental and regulatory supervisor from 2007 to 2014. From 2007 to 2012, Simmons worked and lived in Lagos, Nigeria, with her family. She led the environmental permitting efforts for the company’s Gulf Coast Growth Venture, a $6 billion chemical project. She expanded her role to serve offices in Africa, Asia Pacific, Australia, and Europe from 2009 to 2014. She also served as the water, waste, state regulatory manager, and environmental and permitting manager for over six years before becoming the Environmental & Regulatory Manager for all of ExxonMobil’s Russia operations in May 2020.  After the company divested from this operation, she became ExxonMobil’s Safety, Security, Health, and Environment Manager.

She has learned through her work the necessity of finding a good balance between understanding energy needs and our environmental footprint (S. Simmons, personal communications, May 30, 2023).

Many of the challenges she faced in her roles had to do with her international experience. There is a lack of regulatory standards in many countries she worked at outside the US. Dr. Simmons has helped the corporation apply the basic standards knowing it was the right thing to do. Another important challenge she faced was changing the narratives in the behavioral approach to projects. She helped ensure that environmental narratives will not be an afterthought for projects that get implemented. Over the last two decades, her team has focused on an integrative approach—choosing based on the least Carbon footprints and optimal output reliability (S. Simmons, personal communications, May 30, 2023).

Dr. Simmons has worked for ExxonMobil for 23 years. She and her husband, Philip, have two children, Jonathan and Jacquelyn. She is passionate about volunteer service and leadership development. Dr. Simmons credits a supportive family, friends, and countless formal and informal mentors who have helped her achieve academic, personal, and professional goals.

Dr. Simmons received many accolades during her undergraduate years, including the Black Engineer of the Year Student Leadership Award, Miss Black University of Oklahoma, and the Volunteer Spirit Award from General Motors Corporation. Her volunteer service continues today. Dr. Simmons is an Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated member and has served as an at-Large Director for Alpha Kappa Alpha Educational Advancement Foundation. She works with several non-profit organizations, including the Child Care Council of Greater Houston, Bayou Land Conservancy, and United Way. Dr. Simmons holds professional memberships with the Society of Women Engineers, the National Society of Black Engineers, and the Society of Petroleum Engineers. Dr. Simmons has received the “Tomorrow’s Leader Today” Award, the YMCA Young African-American Achiever Award, and was featured in Ebony magazine as one of the “30 Leaders of the Future”. She actively participates with the Black Employees Success Team at ExxonMobil as the organization’s president.