D. Brenton Simons OBE is a veteran nonprofit administrator, author, speaker, and historian. Currently President Emeritus and Chief Stewardship Officer, he is immediate past President and CEO of American Ancestors, having served in that role from 2005 to 2024. He has been a member of the staff since 1993. In his tenure, he has overseen a significant expansion of the organization’s membership, funding, programming, and scholarship, as well as the expansion of its Boston campus.

In 2025, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in History by Anderson University, in Anderson, South Carolina, and in 2023, King Charles III appointed Simons an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in recognition of his services to Anglo-American history.

Author of the award-winning Witches, Rakes, and Rogues, and other books, including Boston Beheld, Simons is the recipient of the Washington Irving Medal for Literary Excellence (The Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York); the Award of Merit (The American Association for State and Local History); the Bradford Award (Pilgrim Hall Museum); the John Adams Medal (Society of the Sons of the Revolution in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts); the History Award (The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution); the History-Genealogy Award (The American Library Association), and several other awards.

Simons is President of the International Congress of Genealogical and Heraldic Sciences and Honorary President of the American Patrons of St George’s and Descendants of the Knights of the Garter, Windsor Castle, as well as an active board member or officer of several other organizations. He is past Vice Chair of the Plymouth 400th Anniversary State Commission and a past member of the State Commission to Investigate the Seal and Motto of Massachusetts, both by appointment of former Massachusetts Governor Charles D. Baker. He is also past Board Secretary of The New England Quarterly: A Historical Review of New England Life and Letters. He resides in Boston.