After working retail security and as a Correctional Officer at the Indiana State Farm in Putnamville, she began the selection process for the ISP. She was hired in 1987 and spent her first 2 years on the Indiana Toll Road. Simmons worked undercover narcotics for the Lowell Post and transferred to the Terre Haute Post, where she now serves, in 2000. After working as a road trooper in several counties, she began working the Problem Oriented Policing Program (POPS), where she is currently assigned.
Simmons is a member of the Critical Incident Stress Management Team and has attained the rank of Master Trooper. She represented the ISP in the second wave of troopers to go to Biloxi, MS after Hurricane Katrina. She reports this was a tremendous experience where she made lifelong friends.
Simmons has worked with the ISP Youth Services Camp Program since she became a trooper and in 2003 was the Director of the largest Respect for Law Camp with 310 campers.
When she is not working, she enjoys reading, fixing up her 1890 home, doing counted cross-stitch, traveling and baking. In 1999, she returned to IU for a second degree in Interior Design and will finish that degree in May.
She also serves as a board member for the Wabash Valley Council on Domestic Abuse (CODA). She plans to retire in 6 years after 25 years with the ISP, move to some place warm (no snow!) and work in Interior Design.
Her "children" all have four legs: Pebbles and Screamer (Cocker Spaniels) and Sammie, her cat.
Her goals during her term as a board member for the ITA include to help to make more folks aware of the programs and benefits of the association to both members of the department and the general public.