She is known for her work as a professor and administrator at the University of the West Indies, as well as her poetry, which has been published in periodicals, anthologies, and the 2004 collection Silk Cotton and Other Trees.
[1] Her uncle was Harold Simmons, often referred to as the father of modern St. Lucian arts and culture.
[2] She studied at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, graduating in 1972 with a degree in education, with a special focus on English.
[1][3] After graduating from Stanford, Simmons-McDonald taught linguistics there before heading to the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill in Barbados in 1991.
She served as both a professor and an administrator at the university, eventually becoming head of the linguistics department and then dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Education.