Dr. Simpson is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Irving Medical College (CUIMC) as well as Director of the Center for OCD and Related Disorders at the New York State Psychiatric Institute (NYSPI)/CUIMC. She also partners with New York State to train front-line clinicians in the early detection and treatment of OCD, serves as Associate Editor of JAMA-Psychiatry, and is president-elect of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. Advisor to the World Health Organization on the classification of OCD and author of the American Psychiatric Association's Practice Guidelines for OCD, Dr. Simpson works to transform care for people with anxiety and OCD. She joined the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University's Anxiety Disorders Clinic in 1996 as a research fellow, developed an independent research career as a faculty member, and served as its Director from 2006 to 2016. She then served as the Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University and Director of Psychiatric Research at the New York State Psychiatric Institute from 2016 until 2022.
Dr. Simpson has received numerous accolades, including the George N. Thompson Award for Distinguished Service from the Society of Biological Psychiatry, the Julius Axelrod Mentorship Award from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, and the distinction of Fellow, American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies.