Barbara Simons was President of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) from July 1998 until June 2000. She founded and co-chairs ACM’s US Public Policy Committee (USACM). She is on the Board of Directors of the U.C. Berkeley Engineering Fund, Public Knowledge, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, as well as the Advisory Board of Zeroknowledge. Simons earned her Ph.D. in computer science from U.C. Berkeley, worked at IBM Research for many years, holds several patents, and has authored numerous technical papers. She is currently a consulting professor at Stanford University.

Simons is a Fellow of ACM and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She received the Alumnus of the Year Award from the Berkeley Computer Science Department, the Norbert Wiener Award from CPSR, the Outstanding Contribution Award from ACM, and the Pioneer Award from EFF. She was selected by cnet as one of its 26 Internet “Visionaries” and by Open Computing as one of the “Top 100 Women in Computing”. Science Magazine featured her in a special edition on women in science.

Simons served on the President’s Export Council’s Subcommittee on Encryption and on the Information Technology-Sector of the President's Council on the Year 2000 Conversion. She has testified before both the U.S. and the California legislatures and at government sponsored hearings. She was runner-up in the first election for the North America seat on the ICANN Board.

Simons is a co-founder of the U.C. Berkeley Computer Science Reentry Program for Women and Minorities. The program was killed by the anti-affirmative action California Proposition 209.