Luma Simms

Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center

Luma Simms, a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, studies the life and thought of immigrants. Across a broad range of topics, her work focuses on the human (individual and communal), ethical, religious, and philosophical dimensions of immigration.

Mrs. Simms’s essays, articles, and book reviews have appeared in a variety of publications including First Things, The Federalist, Public Discourse, the Institute for Family Studies, and others. Her Arabic television and American radio interviews include topics from religious freedom in the Middle East, Congress and DACA, immigration and the Middle East, to divorce and parenting. Mrs. Simms was Associate Fellow at The Philos Project where her research and writing focused on a Christian presence in the Middle East, defending the sovereign existence of the Jewish people, anti-Semitism, personal and national identity, and immigrant life and thought.

Some of Mrs. Simms’s notable essays include Immigrants, Assimilation, and Religion at Public Discourse; Why We Should Resettle Refugees In Their Own Lands at The Federalist; I Am My Enemy: A Naturalized American Finds Herself at War with Her Homeland at Plough Magazine; Anti-Semitism is Stealth Anti-Democracy Part I and Part II at the Philos Project; Renewing My Plea: Humanae Vitae After Obergefell at First Things; and The Infectious Effects of Divorce and Marriage at the Institute for Family Studies.

Her background includes a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from California State Polytechnic University Pomona. She studied law at Chapman University School of Law before leaving to become an at-home mom. At Chapman Law she worked for The Claremont Institute’s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence as a research assistant to Dr. John Eastman.

Mrs. Simms was born in Baghdad, Iraq; her parents and ancestors are from Mosul, and she speaks Arabic with a Moslawi dialect.