Sheila Simon works at the Southern Illinois University School of Law, where she teaches property law, government law and ethics, legal writing, family law, and a special seminar on slavery, race history, and law in Southern Illinois. She took time away from teaching to serve as Lieutenant Governor of Illinois from 2011 to 2015. In that capacity, she worked on many issues including education policy and secure funding for rape crisis centers, including the establishment of sexual assault survivor programs via taxation of strip clubs.
Before teaching law, she was an assistant state’s attorney for four years, with two of those years spent prosecuting domestic batterers. Her civil law experience includes five years as a staff attorney at Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance, and three years in private practice. She was a member of the Carbondale City Council from 2003 to 2007.
Simon is one of the authors of Legal Writing, now in its fifth edition. She graduated from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1987, and from Wittenberg University in 1983. Ms. Simon is a member of the board of 50 x 2026, Change Illinois, and Marcy’s Law Illinois. She has served on a panel to screen federal judge applicants and been a pro bono attorney for the development of conservation easements in Dogtooth Bend, at the southern tip of Illinois.
Simon is also a member of Loose Gravel, a bluesish band that has been together for more than 20 years and can be heard locally. Sheila and her husband, Perry Knop, have done way better, being married for more than 35 years and producing two fabulous daughters, Reilly, who works for the U.S. State Department, and Brennan, who works on food and hunger issues.