Maria do Rosario Simao was born in Obidos, Portugal, to Jose and Gloria Simao and immigrated to Hartford, Connecticut as a child. She attended Hartford public schools, graduating third in her class from Hartford Public High School, and went on to receive her B.A. in American Studies from Connecticut College in New London in 1975. She received a teaching fellowship to attend Springfield College where she received an M.Ed. in Community Leadership and Development in 1982. After marrying and having her daughter, Natalia, Ms. Simao attended the University of Connecticut School of Law, received her J.D., and became a member of the Connecticut Bar in 1994.

Ms. Simao has held leadership positions in non-profit and higher education institutions for most of her life. She is presently the manager of the Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy at Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) where she is responsible for creating educational forums, presentations and materials about public policy issues affecting municipalities in Connecticut. Prior to joining CCSU, she was the director of LISC's Hartford Neighborhood Development Support Collaborative, a technical assistance provider and funder of community development corporations in Hartford. Her LISC position followed six years at Trinity College in Hartford. At Trinity she was part of the team led by Eddie Perez (now Mayor of Hartford) and Kevin Sullivan (now Lieutenant Governor) that created, funded and executed the $200 million neighborhood initiatives affiliated with the Learning Corridor (a group of four unique schools and community programs adjacent to the Trinity College campus in the Frog Hollow neighborhood). She started at Trinity College as the first director of the Trinity Center for Neighborhoods. Before attending law school, she was the executive director of the Friendship Service Center of New Britain for eight years. There she oversaw a five-fold increase in the organization's operating budget, a $3.2 million capital campaign, and the building of a new facility for homeless men, women and children. She was a community organizer at Citizens for Action in New Britain and Hartford Areas Rally Together (H.A.R.T.) immediately after graduating from college.

Ms. Simao lives with her husband of 25 years, Michael Gorzoch, a development officer at New Britain General Hospital, in New Britain, Connecticut. She is active in many organizations, including her church (where she led the congregation through a strategic planning process), the YMCA, New Britain politics (as Deputy Treasurer for a mayoral candidate), enjoys singing in her church choir and other choral organizations, and was the first female director of the Portuguese Foundation. Her daughter, Natalia Maria Gorzoch, is a junior majoring in electrical engineering at Tulane University in New Orleans and an Air Force ROTC cadet. As a result of Hurricane Katrina, Natalia spent last semester at MIT.