Beth A. Simmons (born 1958) is an American academic and notable international relations scholar.

Simmons was born in 1958 in the San Francisco Bay Area in California and attended Monta Vista High School in Cupertino, California where she excelled in speech, debate, and music.

She earned a BA in political science and philosophy summa cum laude from the University of Redlands, an MA in international relations from the University of Chicago, and an MA and PhD in government from Harvard, where she was a student of international relations theorist Robert Keohane.

Simmons taught as an assistant professor at Duke University (1991–1996) and as an associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley (1996–2002) before joining the faculty of Harvard University in 2002, where she was Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs and Director of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.

[4] She was succeeded as President by Etel Solingen of the University of California, Irvine.