John E. Simmons holds a BA in systematics and ecology and an MA in historical administration and museum studies. In 1987, he completed the Collections Care Pilot Training Program (funded by the Bay Foundation) to become one of thirty people in the country to receive specialized training in natural history conservation and collections care. He has spent a total of thirty years as collections manager in two of the largest collections of fluid-preserved specimens in the United States (the California Academy of Sciences and the Biodiversity Research Center at the University of Kansas). He has published extensively on collections care topics and conducted seminars, workshops, and training programs in the United States, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe on the care of natural history collections (his previous publications include the AAM standard reference on collections management policies).
He runs an international consulting company (Museologica) dealing with museum collections and related issues, and teaches museum studies courses for Kent State University, Juniata College, the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Bogotá), and the Northern States Conservation Center. His consulting work includes presentation of workshops and seminars, collections assessments, and hands-on work with collections. He also serves as Adjunct Curator of Collections at the Earth and Mineral Sciences Museum and Art Gallery at Penn State University.