SARA MARIE E. SIMONSEN portrait
  • Adjunct Associate Professor, Family And Preventive Medicine
  • Adjunct Associate Professor, Obstetrics And Gynecology
  • Associate Professor, College Of Nursing
801-585-9360

Current Courses

Spring 2025

  • NURS 7980-003
    Faculty Consultation
  • PBHLT 6975-004
    Project Res-MSPH

Fall 2024

Professional Organizations

  • American Nurses Association. 09/01/2016 - present. Position : Member.
  • Society of Family Planning. 01/2016 - present. Position : Affiliate Fellow.
  • American College of Nurse Midwives. 09/01/2010 - present. Position : Member.
  • American College of Epidemiology. 09/01/2008 - present. Position : Associate.
  • American Public Health Association. 09/01/2005 - present. Position : Member.
  • Utah Public Health Association. 09/01/2005 - present. Position : Member.
  • Society for Epidemiologic Research. 09/01/2005 - present. Position : Member.
  • Society for Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiologic Research. 09/01/2005 - present. Position : Member.

Practice History

  • Summit County Health Department. 01/01/2019 - present .

Teaching Philosophy

As the child of two public school teachers, education has always been an important part of my life. Thus, it is only fitting that after years of education in the health sciences, I’ve ultimately become an educator myself. I find that working with students, whether in the classroom or one-on-one, is energizing. Teaching and mentoring students gives me the opportunity to continually broaden my horizons through their excellent questions and innovative ideas. It requires me to keep refining my own knowledge and my abilities to convey this knowledge.

I strive to design course activities to be challenging in a way that facilitates learning. I use real-life examples that make students think about situations where there are conflicting guidelines or different interpretations of the evidence in order to promote independent thinking. In online classes, I use homework problems as a way to help student apply knowledge from lectures and readings—these are designed to stretch them and help them identify areas where they are lacking understanding in preparation for more formal assessment such as quizzes and exams. I ask students to review, compare, and critique studies with distinctive or flawed approaches in order to make the lessons more memorable. While my teaching activities are designed to challenge students, I also make every effort to let students know that I care deeply about their learning and I make myself readily available to answer questions and provide clarity.