Pennsylvania College of Health Sciences (PA College) has announced that president Mary Grace Simcox will retire as of Dec. 31.

Simcox is the first and only president of the college, and she was responsible for evolving the school from a degree-granting institute to an accredited college. She joined what is now PA College in 1997 as the dean of nursing for Lancaster Institute for Health Education (LIHE). Seven months later, she stepped into an interim role overseeing all of LIHE's programs, and the position became permanent in 1998. Working with a small group of staff members and faculty, Simcox led the evolution of LIHE to become the Lancaster General College of Nursing and Health Sciences in 2001.

In the years that followed, Simcox oversaw the addition of bachelor's and graduate degree programs, building expansions, and a name change. She also led the college's transition to its current campus in Lancaster, and with it, a change in philosophy that puts the learner at the center of the educational experience. Part of that transformation included adding The Center for Excellence in Practice, which is the college's simulation center. The center includes more than 20,000 square feet of immersive, interdisciplinary, and hyper-realistic clinical simulation space with 24 rooms, including an intensive care unit. It was engineered to feel natural and authentic to learners from all facets of health care, and it is the culmination of nearly a decade of planning and collaboration with experts in simulation education. Simcox also oversaw an affiliation with Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health (LGH), providing clinical placement and tuition reimbursement for PA College students and LGH employees.

Additionally, Simcox led the college through three rounds of accreditation through the nationally-recognized Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE), entailing a multi-year process intended to ensure both academic credibility and caliber of the college. During its last reaccreditation in 2021, PA College received 12 recognitions from MSCHE for the quality of its graduates, its health and wellness programming, the Center for Teaching and Learning, the Center for Excellence in Practice, and the health care core curriculum.

Simcox began her career in 1972 when she graduated with an associate degree in nursing from Gwynedd Mercy College. She worked as a registered nurse for several years on the medical-surgical floor and then the intensive care unit of Roxborough Memorial Hospital before accepting a teaching position with the Roxborough School of Nursing in 1979. She then became director of the school in 1985 and remained in that position until she joined LIHE in 1997. She received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Gwynedd Mercy College in 1978, her Master of Science in Nursing with a clinical nurse specialty in renal disease from the University of Pennsylvania in 1981, and her doctorate in higher education from Widener University in 1998.

Simcox has held leadership roles in a variety of professional organizations.

Her retirement precedes PA College's merger with Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia, set to be completed in January 2024. Through the merger, more than 20 of PA College's nursing and allied health programs ranging from certificates through the doctoral level will be adopted by Saint Joseph's academic portfolio.