If Angela Davis, Rod Stewart & J Lo had a baby...

Born and raised in Southern California, Christine Simmons is a true California girl. Simmons’ vast experience as a leader, entrepreneur, speaker and executive has garnered her trailblazing appointments and accolades in some of the most prominent organizations in the world. 

Simmons’ strategic consulting firm, Alis Volat Propriis, LLC (Which means “she who flies with her own wings” in Latin), advises small, mid and large size businesses on operational excellence, strategic planning, business development, and representation initiatives among other things. Simmons also speaks globally on topics of Business, Strategy, Leadership, Inclusion, and Empowerment. Her clothing and merchandise line, Unapologetically (TM) Christine, encourages everyone to live UNAPOLOGETICALLY (TM), which she defines as “Being Bold, Attacking Life’s Challenges in Extraordinary Fashion, & Loving Oneself - Flaws and All!”  

In 2019 Christine was named to the position of Chief Operating Officer at the Academy  of Motion Picture Arts and Science, the first Woman and Black person to hold the position. Simmons was responsible for the day-to-day management and enhancement of the Academy’s internal organization and infrastructure, focusing on a number of key initiatives including the organization’s strategic and 5-year business plans, organizational restructure, career progression realignment, representation and inclusion, sustainability and much, much more. Simmons created the first-ever, Office of Representation, Inclusion, and Equity which supported internal and external initiatives to broaden the Aperture through which excellence is recognized in film.

Prior to joining the Academy Simmons was President & Chief Operating Officer of the three-time WNBA Champion Los Angeles Sparks. The Sparks are one of three founding teams from the league’s inception in 1997. Christine led all aspects of the team’s business operations including ticket and sponsorship sales and service, marketing, game operations, communications, community relations and finance. Under her leadership the team saw a 34% increase in ticket sales, doubled ratings on Spectrum SportsNet and impacted nearly 70,000 lives through community programs in one season alone.

Prior to joining the Sparks, she was an Executive Vice President with Magic Johnson Enterprises where she would evaluate investment opportunities and was responsible for business development. With over 2 decades of leadership experience in creating strategic alliances, leading business development and driving corporate initiatives, Christine has worked with many Fortune 500 corporations and multi-million dollar companies including Disney and NBCUniversal.

A proud UCLA graduate, she currently holds seats on UCLA Foundation Board of Directors and the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center Advisory Board. She served on the UC Board of Regents, where she served on the Finance and Capital Strategies, Public Engagement and Development, Investments & Basic Needs committees. She is a Past President and Director on the Board of the UCLA Alumni Association representing all 500,000 global Bruins.

She is on the Advisory Council for Playbook Makers, Spry, Next Play Capital, Shared Harvest Fund, and MyCOVID MD. She also volunteers for Better Futures for Thomazeau, a small, grassroots nonprofit that provides aide and is currently building a vocational school in Haiti. A huge advocate of mentoring, Christine formally mentors the next generation of Black and Brown women through Cari Champion’s foundation, Brown Girls Dream, and has informally mentored countless others. 

Her proudest achievement is being mom to her son, Christian.