Tracy Simmons is an award winning journalist specializing in religion reporting, digital entrepreneurship and participatory journalism. In her 15 years on the religion beat, Simmons has tucked a notepad in her pocket and found some of her favorite stories aboard cargo ships in New Jersey, on a police chase in Albuquerque, in dusty Texas church bell towers, on the streets of New York and in tent cities in Haiti.
Simmons has worked as a multimedia journalist for newspapers across New Mexico, Texas and Connecticut. Currently she teaches journalism at Washington State University and serves as the executive director of SpokaneFAVS.com, a digital journalism start-up covering religion news and commentary in Spokane, Wash. She also writes for the Religion News Service and is a reporter and columnist for the Spokesman-Review. Prior to coming to WSU she taught journalism at University of Idaho and Gonzaga University.
Currently Simmons is working on “Exploring the Pandemic Impact on Congregations: Innovation Amidst and Beyond COVID-19”, a 5-year, $5 million grant-funded mixed-methods research project that seeks to thoroughly investigate the current changes and eventual outcomes of the pandemic for congregational life in the United States.