White House Author

Simon Moore is the founder and Executive Director of College Visions, a Providence, RI, nonprofit that coaches disadvantaged students to enter, succeed in, and graduate from college. Simon was born and raised in Providence and attended public schools before earning a B.A. from Brown University. After college, he worked as the first-ever college advisor at Banana Kelly High School in the Bronx. In 2004, he secured an AmeriCorps VISTA position, which provided the seed investment to launch College Visions and enabled him to guide a pilot group of 10 students through the college admission process. As a result of the VISTA start-up investment, College Visions is now a leader in the college access sector in Rhode Island and annually supports more than 300 students working toward a college degree. For his work at College Visions, Simon was selected as a 2011 Bank of America Local Hero and Providence Phoenix Local Hero, and a 2013 Rhode Island Foundation Fellow. Simon lives on the South Side of Providence and is deeply committed to building a strong future for his hometown.