Dinee Simpson

Dr. Dinee Simpson is the first Chief Health Equity Executive at Northwestern Memorial Healthcare. She is also Associate Professor of Surgery in the Division of Organ Transplantation at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Vice Chair of Faculty Development and Diversity for the Department of Surgery, and the founding Director of the Northwestern Medicine African American Transplant Access Program, an initiative of the Northwestern Medicine Comprehensive Transplant Center, a nationally recognized health equity program conceived of in 2018. Dr. Simpson completed her undergraduate study at Colgate University, where she majored in Chemistry. Immediately following graduation she spent several years in New York City as a research analyst. In this position she investigated consumer’s behaviors of seeking online health information in the setting of direct-to-consumer advertising, with a special focus on how health-information seeking patterns differed by ethnicity and culture. This work was considered novel for its time and won many industry recognitions. Dr. Simpson then transitioned from industry to pursue a medical degree at New York University School of Medicine, following with surgical residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital of Harvard Medical School. Upon completion of residency, she completed a 2-year fellowship in Abdominal Transplant Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Simpson’s clinical focus includes liver and kidney transplantation. In addition to her clinical work, Dr. Simpson served as the inaugural Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Adviser for the American Society of Transplant Surgeons from 2020-2022, as well as the Chair of their Anti-Racism Task Force. She currently serves on the ASTS’s board of councilors. Dr. Simpson has a passion to establish equity in access to transplantation amongst minority populations through outreach, community education and activation, advocacy and policy work. She is NIH funded through a U-01 mechanism to study her transplant health equity program and to implement it at another major transplant center in Florida. Dr. Simpson is recipient to the 2019 Distinctively Me Community She-ro award, the 2019 National Kidney Foundation of Illinois Rising Star Award, and was recently selected as a 2022 New York University Alumni Changemaker- a unique group of visionaries who have leveraged their expertise, creativity, and entrepreneurial spirit for the greater good. She received the American Society of Transplant Surgeons award for her health equity and DEI work in 2022, and was recently named a Fierce50 honoree for leadership and innovation in the Health Equity space. She has been featured in many media outlets to include the New York Times, NBC Nightly News, Newsy National, the Chicago Tribune, Windy City Live, ABC7 News, Fox32 News, WGN Channel 9, The Chicago Defender, Global Mixx the Workshop and StartTV.