Louise Simmons

Professor Emerita

Professor Emerita Louise Simmons was affiliated with the School of Social Work for 47 years. She was in the Community Organization Concentration, Coordinator of the Urban Issues in Social Work focused area of study for many years. Her research combined her activism and analysis of many aspects of social and economic justice, racial and gender equality, and urban political movements. She participated in and wrote about community-labor coalitions, welfare rights and her experiences as a Hartford City Council member from 1991-1993 as a third-party member (People for Change, a forerunner of he Working Families Party). She has been active in local civil rights, labor and community struggles since the 1970s and worked with any organizations in Hartford, statewide and nationally. She has a BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a major in Sociology, an MA in Education from the University of Connecticut, and a Ph.D from MIT in Urban and Regional Studies. She has written, edited and co-edited four books, and a variety of journal articles.