When I first came to this institution in 1997, it was to serve as the Dean of Nursing for one of a small collection of programs that made up the Lancaster Institute for Health Education. In the blink of an eye, I was serving as the President of an institution that had evolved more than I ever imagined.
President Simcox first joined PA College in 1997 as the Dean of Nursing, when the College was known as the Lancaster Institute for Health Education (LIHE), and became the President of the institution one year later. Throughout her tenure, she led the institution through enormous periods of growth and change, including transitioning LIHE into an accredited degree-granting college; overseeing two name changes; adding bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees; and building a new campus on Greenfield Road.
President Simcox’s career in health care began in 1972, when she graduated with her Associate Degree in Nursing from Gwynedd-Mercy College. She worked as a nurse for several years on first the Medical-Surgical Floor and then the Intensive Care Unit of Roxborough Memorial Hospital before accepting a teaching position with the Roxborough School of Nursing in 1979. She became Director of the School in 1985 and remained in that position until she joined PA College.
President Simcox holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Gwynedd Mercy College, a master’s degree in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania, and a doctorate in education from Widener University. She serves as a member of the Association of Health Sciences Education Consortium, the PA College/Lancaster EMS Consortium, the Working Group for the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce and Local College Presidents and the Association of Independent Colleges & Universities Presidents, and is on the Healthcare Advisory Council of the Milton S. Hershey School. She has served as the Chair of the Lancaster County Career & Technology’s Licensed Practical Nursing Advisory Board, President of the National Association of Nursing Educators (NANE) and as a member of the Academic Affairs Committee for the Board of Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health.
