Ruth Simmons, Scale-Up Advisor, ExpandNet

To facilitate the use of systemative approaches to scale up Ruth Simmons regularly assists staff with their projects and co-leads the Community of Practice on Scale up. This engagement with the Evidence of Practice Project fulfills her passion for helping women in the developing world to have a better life.

Ruth Simmons, PhD, is Professor Emerita at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and President of Partners in Expanding Health Quality and Access, a US-based 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Dr. Simmons has more than four decades of experience in teaching, research, writing and the provision of technical assistance in the areas of institution-building, family planning and related reproductive health policy and program development, quality of care and user perspectives. She was instrumental in the development and implementation of WHO’s approach to contraception and the strengthening of reproductive health programs and has worked extensively in Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Latin America and China. She is a leader in the field of scaling up to which she—in collaboration with her colleagues—has contributed major publications, the development of tools and the creation of ExpandNet, a global learning community of health professionals, policymakers and scholars engaged in efforts to expand and institutionalize health service innovations. She speaks English, French and German fluently and has some knowledge of Hindi and Spanish.