Former Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon may soon be a more familiar face on campus.

Simon, 53, daughter of the late U.S. Senator Paul Simon, said she has been meeting with Virginia Tilley, chairwoman of the Department of Political Science, about teaching courses during the fall semester. 

“If it works out I will teach [American government] political science and politics of diversity,” said Simon, who lost the 2014 comptroller race against the late Judy Baar Topinka. “The opportunity to put some of my practical experience in government to work by teaching students seems very exciting to me.”

Simon, who was a Carbondale city councilwoman from 2003 to 2007 and lost the 2007 Carbondale mayoral race to Brad Cole, said she is supervising two SIU students for the political science department in Springfield from her home in southern Illinois this semester. While she would not disclose the students’ names, she said one interns for Lobbyist Liz Brown-Reeves, and the other for the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association. 

Simon, whose husband Perry Knop is a political science professor at John A. Logan College, said she does not know when her position will be official–if at all–or what her salary would be.

“I don’t think anything moves quickly through the university system,” said Simon, who has not ruled out running against Mike Bost for Illinois congress in 2016. “I’m not holding my breath right now.”

From 1998 to 2000, Simon was a staff attorney at SIU Law School’s domestic violence clinic, which she helped create. She worked in the law school until 2010. 

Simon, who plays the banjo, said is glad to be back home because her band Loose Gravel gets to practice every Sunday. The five-person eclectic folk group will play March 20 at Rustle Hill Winery in Cobden. 

This story will be updated online as more information becomes available. 

Luke Nozicka can be reached at [email protected].