KEYNOTE
Jo Ann Simons
Jo Ann Simons has over 40 years of experience in the intellectual and developmental disabilities field. Her progressive initiatives have included the creation of the ArcTank to fund almost two million dollars in innovative ideas to positively disrupt disability services, closing segregated settings and transitioning the focus to community job placement, innovative school to work programs, inclusive community living, and creating new environments to serve people using retail malls.
Jo Ann was named the CEO of the Northeast Arc in January 2016. The Northeast Arc has approximately 1,100 employees and positively impacts the lives of more than 10,000 individuals in 280 communities across Massachusetts and named a Top Place to Work and DEI Champion by The Boston Globe.
Northeast Arc’s latest initiative embodies Jo Ann’s spirit of bold invention. Under her leadership, Northeast Arc has created a new resource—the Center for Linking Lives—in 26,000 square feet of highly visible retail space in the heart of the Liberty Tree Mall in Danvers, Mass. The Center serves as a vibrant gathering place, where individuals with disabilities can reach their full potential, and learn to lead fulfilling lives alongside their peers. It represents a scalable idea—with powerful implications far beyond Danvers and Boston’s North Shore.
In 2016 and 2023, Jo Ann was named of one of Boston’s Power 50 by the Boston Business Journal and Northeast Arc from 2014 to 2024 among the Top 100 Women Led Businesses in Massachusetts compiled by The Women’s Edge and Boston Globe Magazine.
Currently, a member of the Governor’s Commission on Persons with I/DD and the Autism Commission, Jo Ann also served on Governor Maura Healey’s and Charlie Baker’s Transition Committee on Health Care. Also, she serves on the Point32 Health Plan Foundation Board. She is past Chair of the National Down Syndrome Society and past President of the National Down Syndrome Congress. She is the former Chair of LIFE, Inc. of Cape Cod, she was also a Director of Century Bank. She is the author of the Down Syndrome Transition Handbook (Woodbine House 2010). In addition she created Footprints for the Future, a personal planning tool that provides a place for families and professionals to record specific and personal information as part of their future and estate planning.
Jo Ann was previously the President/CEO of the Cardinal Cushing Centers, Inc. and the Arc of East Middlesex as its Executive Director. In addition, she had been the Deputy Facility Director of the Fernald Developmental Center in Waltham; Director of Policy Initiatives and Acting Director of Family Support Services for the Massachusetts Department of Disability Services; and mother of Jon, an independent man with Down syndrome.
