Thom is a 1981 graduate of Hofstra University and a 1984 graduate of Hofstra Law School in New York. With an undergraduate degree in Economics & Business, Thom accepted positions in a variety of private business endeavors, including that of Manager/Buyer for WordsWorth Books, the largest independent bookstore chain on the east coast. In 1990, Mr. Simmons was employed by the Martha’s Vineyard Regional Planning & Economic Development Commission, where he served as Administrator until 1998. During that time, Thom assisted over 200 new business ventures negotiate regulatory processes, assisted in the development of an aquaculture facility with the Wampanoag Tribe, achieved a 20 mile extension to the island’s bicycle path system, and developed the financial procedures for the Commonwealth’s Revolving Septic Upgrade Loan Fund.

 

Beginning in 1998, Thom began teaching courses for Greenfield Community College in a collaborative effort with the State Department of Food and Agriculture, and in 2000 was hired full-time. He is now the Chair of the Business Department, and continues to teach courses in Economics. He has also taught evening courses in Public Finance at Keene State College.

 

At GCC, he has overseen the development of new programs in Entrepreneurship and Web Page Design, and developed new courses in Sports Economics and Global Trade. He also re-instituted the school’s Business Club, and has facilitated students’ attendance at annual shareholders meetings, assisted new entrepreneurial ventures, and promoted financial literacy and general business skills. The Business Club now operates the schools only breakfast service, “Café Academia,” and uses the profit to spend a week in New York City each Spring. In July 2004, Thom was one of a handful of academic participants in the global “Microfinance and the Environment” conference in Valley Forge, PA, and took part in drafting microfinancing guidelines for the United Nations “Year of Microfinance” proclamation for 2005.

 

Thom and his partner Scott own a B&B in Fitzwilliam, NH, where they live with two of Thom’s six children. They have a strong interest in early medieval life, especially in Britain and Ireland, and have been known to spend their ‘spare time’ investigating Celtic monastic sites. They are members of St. James Episcopal Church in Keene, New Hampshire. Thom is active in libertarian political issues, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Keene Cheshiremen Chorus, the New Hampshire Bears Charitable Foundation, and AIDS Services of the Monadnock Region.