Dinee Simpson (she/her)
NYU Alumni Changemaker of the Year
(GSM ’06)
Founder, The African American Transplant Access Program
The first Black female transplant surgeon in the state of Illinois.
Dr. Dinee Simpson—the first Black female transplant surgeon in the state of Illinois—didn’t necessarily enter medicine with social-justice goals. But as a surgical trainee she became aware of racial inequities in the evaluation process for organ transplants that she couldn’t ignore. Poor healthcare in Black communities placed Black individuals at higher risk for a bevy of diseases—including those that might require organ-transplant surgeries—but Black individuals were far less likely than white patients to be receive evaluation or treatment.
While this health disparity is part of a systemic national problem, Dr. Simpson realized she was in a unique position to do something about it in her own Chicago backyard. “As a Black woman,” she says, “I thought I could build trust in a system that has historically mistreated Black patients.” That’s how Simpson came to establish the African American Transplant Access Program (AATAP), a first-of-its-kind health initiative that engages directly with Black communities, improving awareness of disease prevention and treatment options.
AATAP’s first year saw a 55% increase in the number of Black patients evaluated for transplant surgeries at Northwestern. Twenty Black patients have been transplanted and 150 more are under evaluation. AATAP is being hailed as a model with national potential to redress longstanding medical injustices. And Dr. Simpson—whose accolades include a SheRo Award honoring her community advocacy—sees health-providers’ beliefs about who “deserves” transplants being eroded. “I love seeing culture shift,” she says, “as we observe how well these patients do.”