In October 2021, she flew to Florida to search for her birth father; Angela Tucker and her Emmy Award-winning husband Brian Tucker filmed a documentary about the search: Lisa & Isell: A story about adoption and the Ghost Kingdom, which premiered in June 2022. Angela and Lisa co-wrote an essay advocating for the rights of Black fathers for the Harvard Law Bill of Health digital symposium in May 2022. In March 2021, one of Lisa’s essays was picked up and published by HuffPost, which led to Lisa’s televised interview on The Tamron Hall Show on ABC.

Lisa was co-host, alongside Dionne Draper, of the first season of 'DAWTA The Podcast' which covers complex, challenging and heart-warming stories of the transracial adoptee experience, and the powerful path to self-actualization. Her jazz standards album Lisa Meets Gianni, featuring legendary Italian drummer Gianni Cazzola, was released in June 2022, on Ropeadope. Lisa was invited to perform at the Biennale in Venice in October 2022 for artist Simone Leigh's Loophole of Retreat. Her poem “Last Supper” was shortlisted for a Creators of Justice Literary Award in November 2022. Her album, NoteSpeak 12, was released in February 2023 by Ropeadope and was on Downbeat Magazine’s Best Albums of 2023 list, having garnered five stars. Lisa and her writing partner Marco Cremaschini were invited to be inaugural Artists in Residence at SUNY Oneonta in October and November of 2023 and won a travel grant from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Italia Music Export in support of their American debut of NoteSpeak 12  allowing them to tour on the East coast in the US in support of the album in November 2023. In December 2024 Lisa and Marco released Spoken Standards recorded at SUNY Oneonta. In 2024 NoteSpeak 12 won, among other awards, Best Spoken Word Album of 2023 from the World Entertainment Awards and “Transcend” was shortlisted for Best Jazz Song by the International Songwriting Competition and her work was a semi-finalist in the American Songwriters Song Contest in 2024 and 2025.

In 2024, Simmons collaborated with artist Phoebe Boswell on Sentient I - VI, a selection of drawings from Boswell’s ongoing Sentients series, recently exhibited in Wentrup Gallery’s 20-year anniversary show. Simmons provided a sonic response in the form of an ekphrastic poem, Portraits in Paradox, accompanied by pianist Marco Cremaschini. The NoteSpeak trilogy will conclude with its third and final album, set for release in September of 2025 on Ropeadope.​​​​​​​

Simmons’ creativity also encompasses composing with and for other artists in different genres, including: Ropeadope’s collaborative Nine-Takes performance series during the pandemic lockdown; rock ‘n’ rollers Plan de Fuga; American roots music on Lisa Bell’s The Italian Project; and soulstress Cheryl Porter, who performed “Consequence” (co-written by Simmons and Cremaschini) at “Two Countries, One Heart” co-sponsored by the American Initiative for Italian Culture, the American Youth Philharmonic Orchestras and the Italian Cultural Institute in Washington.