Dr. Simpson has been the President and Chief Executive Officer of AcademyHealth since 2011. A nationally recognized health policy researcher and pediatrician, she is a passionate advocate for the translation of research into policy and practice. Her research, and over 100 articles and commentaries in peer-reviewed journals, focuses on the role of evidence and data to improve health and healthcare, particularly for children and vulnerable populations.

Before joining AcademyHealth, Dr. Simpson spent eight years as a professor of pediatrics, first as an Endowed Chair in Child Health Policy at the University of South Florida and then as the Director of the Child Policy Research Center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and the University of Cincinnati.

She served as the Deputy Director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality from 1996 to 2002.

Dr. Simpson serves on the advisory boards of the Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Scholars Program, the Israel National Institute for Health Policy Research, and the Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre as well as the Boards of Directors of the Institute for Accountable Care and the National Health Council.

She also serves on the Editorial boards for the Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research and Healthcare: The Journal of Delivery Science and Innovation.

In October 2013, Dr. Simpson was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine).

Dr. Simpson earned her undergraduate and medical degrees at Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland), a master’s in public health at the University of Hawaii, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in health services research and health policy at the University of California, San Francisco.

She was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree by the Georgetown University School of Nursing and Health Studies in 2013.

Dr. Simpson’s areas of expertise include translating research into policy; quality and safety of health care; health and health care disparities; childhood obesity; and child health services.