About the Author

Odis E. Simmons was one of the earliest grounded theory students of Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss, the originators of grounded theory. Both served on his dissertation committee, with Strauss as Chair. In 1971 he began teaching grounded theory to graduate students referred to him by Glaser & Strauss. He has since taught, mentored, and advised countless grounded theory students in academic and non-academic professional settings. He was awarded his Ph.D. in sociology, in 1974, from the University of California San Francisco. He held faculty positions at The University of Tulsa (Sociology), Yale University (Director of Self-Care Program, Medical School, Department of Public Health), and Fielding Graduate University (Educational Leadership), where he developed a doctoral specialty in grounded theory. He focused his career on teaching grounded theory to anyone who wanted to learn and devising ways of using it for applied purposes. He created two grounded theory applied methods, grounded action and grounded therapy, which he refined and fully tested during 14 years as a counselor/therapist for a non-profit social agency. He was a close protégé of both Glaser and Strauss until their passing.