Bio For Lance Simmens

BIOGRAPHY OF LANCE SIMMENS Lance Simmens has spent the last three decades involved in a variety of public policy issues. He spent twenty-two years in Washington, DC, working in senior policy positions in two Administrations, six years on the U.S. Senate Budget Committee, and six years as Assistant Executive Director for the U.S. Conference of Mayors. In 1993 he helped establish the first Federal Office of Sustainable Development in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In 1995 he received the highest honorary award from the U.S. Department of Commerce for his pioneering work in sustainable fisheries initiatives in New England and the Pacific Northwest. He currently serves as Special Assistant for Intergovernmental Affairs to Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, serving as liaison to local governments and local elected officials. In this capacity he also serves as the Governor’s point person on the development of wind and solar energy and he recently received a Green Power Leadership award from Citzens for Pennsylvania’s Future. In December, 2006 he was invited to Nashville as one of the first 250 individuals trained by former Vice-President Al Gore and The Climate Project to deliver presentations on climate change. To date he has delivered 81 presentations in a variety of venues, including high schools, colleges, town hall meetings, national conferences, and executive boards. Last year he was invited to London by the European Parliament to present to Green Party members at the London School of Economics. Mr. Simmens has also participated as a visiting scholar in the Global Villages program of the Iacocca Institute at Lehigh University for the past several years, holding seminars for over 100 young entrepreneurs representing over 50 countries. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Georgia Southern University, his Master’s in Public Administration from Temple University, and has completed executive programs at the Kennedy School of Government and the Harvard Institute for International Development, and recently served as a citizen participant in National Security Seminar Week at the U.S. Army War College. He has two teenage sons and lives in Mechanicsburg, PA.