Simpson named first chief health equity executive

Transplant surgeon Dr. Dinee Simpson has been named the first chief health equity executive at Northwestern Medicine.

In this new position, Simpson will lead the formation of a systemwide approach to enhance health equity across the communities Northwestern Medicine serves.

Simpson joined Northwestern Medicine in 2018. She developed the Northwestern Medicine African American Transplant Access Program to increase equitable access to transplantation and to help patients overcome structural and institutional barriers to receive care they need. With her new role, she will continue to provide clinical leadership over AATAP.

"Dr. Simpson is deeply committed to health equity, and she has long endeavored to address the issues that prevent patients from accessing high-quality care to achieve their highest quality of health," said Dr. Howard Chrisman, president and chief executive officer of Northwestern Memorial HealthCare.

After completing medical school at New York University, Simpson moved to Boston for a surgical residency through Harvard Medical School and completed her transplant surgery fellowship training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to her clinical focus on liver and kidney transplants and her work as an associate professor of surgery in the Division of Organ Transplantation at Feinberg School of Medicine, Simpson is the vice chair of faculty development and diversity in the Department of Surgery.