Celia Simonds joined the Central American Studies Program as a part-time faculty in the Spring of 2006.
Before coming to CSUN she served as the Public Program Coordinator of the LAREGLO Project (Latin American Responses to Globalization) at California State University, Los Angeles. Presently she teaches an average of four courses a semester at CSUN and also teaches in the Ethnic Studies Department at Glendale Community College. She received her MA in Latin American Studies at CSULA. Her research includes the effects of NAFTA on the indigenous communities of the mountain region of Guerrero, Mexico.
She is active in a variety of civic and cultural organizations including the Mexico Solidarity Network, KPFK Nuestra Voz, Spanish programming and Tenoch Productions. She travels frequently to Central America and continues to call her native Costa Rica home.
An important aspect of her life is family -- her husband a graphic artist and avid skydiver, two daughters (one a recent UCLA graduate the other one an archeology student), and her Pembrook Welsh Corgi, named Missy.