Sarah Johnson chats with alum Jayme Simmons
I had the opportunity to chat with Jayme Simmons (BA, 2006), who is currently the Executive Director of the Bill and Crissy Haslam Foundation. During her time at William & Mary, Ms. Simmons took an education policy class taught by Professor Paul Manna that inspired her to pursue a career in education policy. She credits Professor Manna for helping her find the best pathway for an education policy career. Following graduation, she was an algebra teacher and joined Teach For America. After gaining experience as a teacher, she earned her MPP from Vanderbilt University and worked for the state of Tennessee in several positions, including in the Governor's office and the Department of Education. She then began working in her current position.
Ms. Simmons enjoyed her time working for Governor Bill Haslam. She started as an Education Policy Analyst in his office. During her first year in that position, she learned a lot about the political realities of passing policies and expanded her view of policymaking beyond what was taught in the classroom in her master's program. As an Education Policy Analyst, she worked on policies regarding K-12 education and higher education, especially community college. One of Ms. Simmons' favorite parts of working in that position was seeing the improvements in education in Tennessee under Governor Haslam and seeing the state-wide impact of their policies.
After her time as an Education Policy Analyst, Ms. Simmons served as the Chief of Staff for the Tennessee Department of Education. She noted that policies from the Department of Education may seem smaller than the ones from the Governor's office, but they still have a large impact on how education is implemented in the state. Ms. Simmons then returned to Governor Haslam's office as Director of Policy where she worked on a broader range of policy issues, including the opioid epidemic. During the next Governor's administration, Ms. Simmons continued to work for the state of Tennessee, specializing in budgeting and evidence-based work. Then, former Governor Haslam asked her to be the Executive Director of the Bill and Crissy Haslam Foundation.
In her current position, Ms. Simmons supports organizations that focus on education, the city of Knoxville, or faith-based work. Though not directly advocating for legislation, she is still involved in work on education policy topics, including charter schools, post-secondary education, and improving the use of education data. In her current job, she enjoys being able to provide resources to leaders and organizations who are making an impact on Tennessee. She gets to work closely with organizations to help them become more effective and improve their use of outcomes data.
Ms. Simmons also gave advice for William & Mary students pursuing a career in a policy field. She encourages students to seriously consider the effectiveness of policies. Sometimes in the policy world, there is a tendency to only add to what has already been done. Ms. Simmons recommends using evidence to determine what policies are effective and to make changes to current policies if they are not working, not to just build on them. I really enjoyed my chat with Ms. Simmons, and I was grateful to hear about her experiences in her policy career.
