Anna Simó i Castelló (born July 26, 1968) is a Catalan politician who became Minister of Social Welfare and Family Affairs after the elections held in 2003.

Education and Professional Background

Anna Simó got a Bachelor Degree in Catalan Philology by the UB (1986-1991) and a Linguistic planning postdegree also by the UB (1991-1992).

She has worked in the Linguistic Normalisation Consortium (1990-2003) in several charges; the last one being responsible of the Barcelona's Linguistic Normalisation Center in Ciutat Vella.

Civic background

She is member of several associations, which include Ca la Dona (Woman's house), the Centre Catòlic de L'Hospitalet (Catholic Center of L'Hospitalet) and the Centre d’Estudis de L'Hospitalet (L'Hospitalet's Studies Center). She is also affiliated to CCOO since 1990, and has been member of the Linguistic Normalisation Consortium's Company Committee.

She has been involved as a coauthor in a study about usages and linguistic attitudes in Catalonia and several catalan towns (a piece of its data was used in several congresses, workshops and conferences held in Catalonia, Spain and Andorra during 2001). She also cowrote Entre l’esperança i el neguit. El català a Catalunya. Coneixements, usos, actituds i identitats lingüístiques (Between hope and nervousness. Catalan in Catalonia. Knowledge, uses, attitudes and linguistic identities), which won ex aequo the I Jaume Camp Prize in Catalan Socilinguistics.

Political background

Anna Simó is affiliated to ERC since 1990, where she holds several charges: member of the National Council (since 1994) and the National Government (since 1998) of her party.

In the past, she also was president of ERC at L'Hospitalet (1996-2002), secretary of social politics (responsible of social welfare, sanity and gay & lesbian politics) between 2001 to 2004. She was elected Councillor in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat Town Council, and member of the Barcelonès Local Council (in May of 2003), but she resigned both charges when she became Minister of the Catalan Government.

Institutional background

Councillor in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat Town Council (2003-2004), she is now Minister of Social Welfare and Family Affairs in the Catalan Government.