Lou Anna Kimsey Simon is an American academic administrator who served as the 20th president of Michigan State University (MSU). Simon was appointed interim president of the university in 2003, then served as president from 2005 until her resignation in 2018. Since December 2017, Simon has been John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor in the College of Education at MSU. From 2012 to 2014, Simon served as chair of the executive committee of National Collegiate Athletic Association. She also served as chair of the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Detroit Branch. Education Simon received her Bachelor of Arts in mathematics from Indiana State University in Terre Haute in 1969. She earned a Master of Science in student personnel and counseling from Indiana State University in 1970. In 1974 Simon earned a PhD in higher education from MSU. She is married and lives in East Lansing. Career Michigan State University Simon was hired by MSU to be a faculty member. Over the following years, she served in a sequence of increasingly-senior administrative positions: Assistant Director of the Office of Institutional Research, Assistant Provost for General Academic Administration, Associate Provost, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs from 1993-2004, and interim president from April 25, 2003 to September 30, 2003 while then-President M. Peter McPherson served as a representative of President George W. Bush in the reconstruction of Iraq. On June 8, 2004, the MSU Board of Trustees voted unanimously to appoint Simon as President with a three-year, US $340,000-a-year, contract effective January 1, 2005. In January 2006, the Board of Trustees increased Simon's salary to US $425,000 although President Simon and her husband Roy Simon donated that year's increase back to the university's capital campaign. In 2006, Simon decided to add Michigan State University to the list of institutions opposing the passage of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, an initiative that ended affirmative action in the state of Michigan. In 2017, Michigan State's role in the Larry Nassar sexual abuse case led to a large outcry from students, faculty, state legislators, alumni and others, including calls for President Simon to step down. Nassar, a sports physician at MSU from 1997 to 2016, pleaded guilty in a Michigan court to seven charges of sexual assault and faces accusations of sexual assault from more than 150 young girls and women. The Detroit News reported that 14 MSU representatives, including