Meet Kimberly Simmons

We recently connected with Kimberly Simmons and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kimberly , really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

I am a historian and community educator. I am also a member of a historic family and claim descendancy from passengers of the Mayflower as well as passengers of the Underground Railroad.
As a child I was a voracious reader and was very drawn to historical non fiction. I believe my heritage is what made me curious of the history,culture and stories of other people. Asking myself, “What is their story?”. I have witten two books about my family to perhaps satisfy some other little girls thirst for knowledge.

As a girl I loved the opportunity to travel. My first airplane ride was for my 16th Birthday with an older Aunt, It was a choice I made between a perhaps to be a long forgotten Sweet Sixteen Birthday Party and visiting a place I had only saw beautiful pictures of …San Francisco…I still call it my second home.

As a kid I had family along the northern California coast and spent from my 16th birthday through my early 20’s in San Francisco at least once a year sometimes twice. My Godmother used to tell her friends that I knew more about the “City by the Bay” than she did and she lived there. My Godfather was a retired Air Force Colonel and pilot ; an original member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen and had retired to the Bay Area. I can proudly say that many a vacation Tuesday afternoon was spent in Jack London Square with the company of a roomful of Congressional Gold Medal winning American Heroes. The Oakland(CA) chapter of the Airmen held monthly mtgs there and by what I call a blessing I was honored to be at those lunches whenever I was in town. There’s nothing like a group of wonderful men with the special honor of being exposed to their stories. I am the actual niece of two of those gallant men and the tales of heroism and danger were intoxicating with history to be remembered.

As I got a little further into my late twenties, I began to travel out of my comfort zone with a cousin by the gift of travel passes due to her job in the airline industry.I continued to use my Birthday as an anchor for one week of the year celebrating life and visiting some of the places my Uncles spoke of from their travels. I had learned to enjoy other people; their stories, share their life, their culture and heritage. I began to travel alone in my thirties and made my first solo trip to Mexico enjoying the warm waters of the Carribean Sea and standing in awe of Mayan ruins built thousands of years before by a people who built a pyramid of 365 steps that counted a year long journey they made every year to celebrate life. I have followed that first trip with 14 others in that country,
I have seen beautiful places surrounded by palm trees, tall buildings in New York City and the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Seen the unbelievable majesty of the Grand Canyon and eaten chocolate and mussels in Belgium and traveled the canals in Amsterdam.

It was nearly 20 years ago that I realized, though I have traveled to three continents, that one of the most interesting places, people and culture the world has not celebrated enough was my home of Detroit. Our city has a history from founding in 1701 to centuries before when the indigenious peoples called this place as they still do home. It is the acknowledged terminus of the Underground Railroad with nearly 40000 people who sought freedom in Canada and put the world on wheels at the banks of its river that is an International border with Canada. It has many stories and is the reason my own family has been here in the region for nearly 200 years.

I then began in 2005, what is my life’s work to have our Detroit River, both an American Heritage River as well as a Canadian Heritage River declared a UNESCO World Heritage designated site. It is work that is ongoing but the stories of many who sought freedom at its banks, the middle class created with steel and car parts, and burial mounds of a native tribe still gracing its shores from over 1000 yrs ago while having 3 different countries fly a flag over its boundaries would have stories to tell.
A life’s purpose was found.

I found that traveling to special places, meeting special people and learning different cultures and heritage led me back to home. I passionately share my own home’s heritage with others that travel many roads coming from many places with the love to learn of a people; their culture, and a heritage shared here in the transnational Detroit River region.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

Kimberly L. Simmons, the 2022 Michigan Humanities Champion of the Year has a background that is diverse and includes both for profit and nonprofit leadership posts, but in fall 2010 , she found her passion and became the founding President and Executive Director of the Detroit River Project a non profit organization, with the mission to establish designation of the Historic Detroit River as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In January 2022, DRP convened an international coalition encompassing local and national government entities and organizations on both sides of the Detroit River region’s international border to move forward on Bi-Bational initiatives that includes the establishment of an International Freedom Corridor and a K-12 Educational curriculum. The Educational curriculum is the first of its kind tasking international educators to build a teaching plan that will straddle an international border giving the U.S. and Canada the opportunity to teach the story of the Detroit River region’s history simultaneously to two countries Ms. Simmons’ program “Caroline Quarlls, A Family Legacy of Freedom” was awarded national partner status in 2005, with the U.S. National Park Service Underground Railroad Network to Freedom and she continues to present to national and internationally known scholars and historians in the Midwest, Ontario, and the South on integrity in educating about cultural heritage. She has been profiled in the media and has lectured internationally as a member of the U.S. State Dept International Speakers Bureau.

Ms. Simmons’ numerous other commitments include: Vice Pres. – Essex County Black Historical Research Society / Windsor, Ontario; Board Member – CHURN(Chicagoland Historical Underground Railroad Network), Chicago, Illinois; Advisory Board member, Adventure Cycling Association and she is also a past Detroit Area Director for the Michigan NAACP and a former Michigan governor appointee of the Michigan Freedom Trail Commission. Ms. Simmons acted as a historian / production consultant to the PBS Documentary mini-series, “Many Rivers to Cross”, and was featured in the ARTE-TV(European PBS) documentary, “American Rivers –Detroit River” that debuted in November 2016 in Berlin, Germany.
A contributing author in the publication, A Fluid Frontier: Slavery, Resistance, and the UGGR in the Detroit River Borderland – Wayne State University Press.(February 2016), she also Co-Authored with Larry McClellan, “To the River, The Remarkable Journey of Caroline Quarlls, A Freedom Seeker on the Underground Railroad” published September 2019 and was a collaborative author in the publication “Ride,Cycle the World”, Random House Penguin April 2021
In 2024 , Ms. Sinmons authored the forward for the volune, “Warriors for Liberty”(Mission Point Press 2024) on behalf of the Michigan Civil War Association.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

1) I have great people skills. I spent 20 years as a Banking Executive and was fortunate to enhance my people skills and use my customer service talent to create a “Customer Service” Certificate program in our Community College.

2) The art of building relationships. The “gift of Gab” has served me well in my travels and as I meet many people around the world it leaves me with friends and relationships on 3 continents to draw from as I navigate the broader world.

3) Never be afraid to ask questions and admit that you do not always know the answers. Be humble. Be persistent.

Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?

Our country it seems is still looking for its identity even after nearly 250 years. The work that I do is bringing understanding of different people, places, heritage and culture together. I believe in the next few years it is actually more important to bring together people celebrating differences. However …..we have reached another stage in our country’s development that may not necessarily bode well for a smooth way forward.

I am persistent.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.detroitriverproject.com
• Instagram: @detroitriverproject
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kimberly.simmons.923
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberly-simmons-2281075
• Twitter: @detriverproject
• Other: Bluesky:@detroitriverlady.bsky,social

Image Credits

image one of Kimberly Simmons leaning over bannister — David Rodriguez / Detroit Free Press
Head shot —- MJT Portraiture