Adele Simmons

Adele Simmons is President of the Global Philanthropy Partnership, which focuses on sustainability and philanthropy. She coordinated efforts to develop Midwest strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, co-chaired the taskforce that developed the 2010 Climate Action Plan for the City of Chicago, and at the request of Mayor Emanuel, co-chairs the task force that prepared and is implementing Sustainable Chicago 2015. She is a member of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ Energy Taskforce, and works with the Urban Sustainability Director’s Network which includes sustainability officers from 124 cities in the U.S. and Canada. Mrs. Simmons is currently on the Board of Marsh & McLennan Companies, the Field Museum, the Union of Concerned Scientists, Demos, the Synergos Institute, and the Environmental Defense Action Fund. She was President of the MacArthur Foundation between 1989 and 1999, launching their global work on climate change. She has served on a number of commissions, including: President Bush’s Commission on Sustainable Development; the Commission on Global Governance; and the UN High Level Advisory Board on Sustainable Development. Mrs. Simmons was President of Hampshire College, a dean at Princeton and Tufts Universities, and a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers. She received her bachelor’s degree from Harvard and her doctorate from Oxford.