Department of Mass Communication

Curtis R. Simmons has been a journalist and educator for over 15 years. As a reporter he has covered the pulse of the people, politics, government and business of New York City and the United States; as an educator he has taught both undergraduate and graduate students the art and craft of journalism.

Simmons is a graduate of Dartmouth College where he concentrated on Government and Economics. After a brief tenure as an analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, he began his journalism career at the American Banker Bond Buyer where he wrote banking industry stories and a newsletter covering New York City Public Finance. He then attended the Columbia School of Journalism where he concentrated in both print and broadcast journalism.

After completing his Master’s Degree, Simmons was selected as one of only twenty graduates nationally to journey to California to join the prestigious Wall Street Journal internship program. Upon returning to New York, Forbes Magazine hired him as a reporter. Later he further enhanced his journalism experience at the Daily News and Newsday. As a metropolitan reporter at those two papers he covered cutting edge stories that ranged from a piece on the first African American member of a Hasidic sect in Brooklyn to investigative pieces that led to the resignations of City officials.

Simmons has also been an education advocate working as a lobbyist and manager for The Professional Staff Congress (PSC), one of the largest higher education unions in the country. While at the PSC, Simmons oversaw a staff of six directors and twenty support staff with a seven million dollar budget.

After three years with the union, he left to raise his twin nephews Leroy and Andrew Holder, who came to live with him. As a single parent he concentrated on raising the boys, but also continued writing regularly for Black Enterprise Magazine and their Website Black Enterprise.com. Simultaneously, he also began teaching undergraduate and graduate courses at a number of CUNY schools (Hunter, Brooklyn College, and Baruch) and New York University. At Baruch as well as Brooklyn College, Simmons created journalism courses that focused on business, labor, and governmental business.

In 2004 Simmons was the director of the City College journalism program where he reorganized the curriculum, recruited top working journalists to teach and lecture at the college, and increased student enrollment from an anemic 30 students to more than 120 students in less than three years. Simmons was also part of a team that successfully proposed a one million dollar radio station and media center, funded by the Manhattan Borough president.

Simmons is also active in journalistic and community service. Simmons was the treasurer of the ELMCOR, a $4 million community-based organization funded by the Borough President of Queens Office and the State Legislature. He is also on the executive board of The New York Association of Black Journalists where he has been instrumental in raising more than $500,000 for the advancement of journalists of color and student scholarships. Simmons is a New York City resident.