Simon earned their Ph.D. in Political Science with a minor in Statistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Substantively, their research focuses on studying donor support of civil society in aid-receiving countries and the role of civil society in development and democracy assistance. Their methodological interests support their substantive focus and include the measurement of regime types and civil society, improvements of survey methodologies and analysis, external validity and generalizability, and using machine learning techniques to reinvestigate research questions in the social sciences.

Simon's teaching focuses on helping their students become better consumers of information by encouraging them to critically reflect on how we approach knowledge accumulation in the social sciences.  They emphasize active, experience-based learning to develop students' ability to ask, answer, and communicate their own research questions.  

curriculum vitae