FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research

Felicia R. Simpson has enjoyed mathematics since she was in elementary school but was inspired to study biostatistics by her mentor, Zephyrinus Okonkwo. She loved the idea of combining mathematics and helping people. She wanted to study biostatistics to understand health disparities from a statistical point of view, especially after losing her mother to a stroke. After earning her PhD in biostatistics, Simpson she started her career at the FDA but transitioned to teaching because she wanted to expose under-represented students to statistics and biostatistics. She is currently an associate professor of statistics and chair in the department of mathematics at Winston-Salem State University.