Peter Simpson, PhD, is a senior professional in the fields of international exchange, international development, and international education. He currently serves as adjunct faculty at World Learning’s SIT Graduate Institute, guest lecturer at George Washington University, and technical writer for grant proposals to the U.S. Department of State. Recent proposals he helped write have been awarded over $7 million in funding. He is also on the Board of Directors of Atlas Corps and the Advisory Council of Ball State University’s Center for International Development.
During a 27-year career in international exchange and development administration, until his retirement in 2013, he was a senior manager at World Learning and Delphi International (acquired by World Learning in 2000). Immediately preceding his retirement, he held senior leadership positions at World Learning in the Office of the President and the Advancement Department with responsibility for alumni relations, development of the Advancing Leaders Fellowship Program, interdepartmental collaboration, and outreach to colleague organizations. For the majority of his career, he was Director of the Visitor Exchange Program at World Learning and Delphi International, heading a staff of 35 engaged in implementing professional and student exchange programs sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Office of International Visitors and Citizen Exchanges Division for about 1,000 participants annually.
Dr. Simpson began his career in public diplomacy in 1986 as a Program Officer at Delphi International designing exchanges for visitors funded through the International Visitor Program and the German Marshall Fund, and managing grants for multi-year USAID development projects in Poland and the Balkans and the U.S. Department of State's EFL Fellow Program in Eastern/Central Europe, Russia, and the NIS. A longtime supporter of public diplomacy and exchanges, he served for four years as Treasurer on the Board of Directors of Global Ties U.S. (formerly NCIV), and is currently an ex-officio member of the Finance Committee of that Board, as World Learning’s representative on the Board of Directors of the Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchanges, and co-chair of the Alumni Engagement Working Group at the Building Bridges Coalition. In the first career in academics specializing in Germanic Studies, he acquired a Ph.D. from Cornell University, M.A. from Princeton University, and BA from Wesleyan University, taught German and English at the college and secondary levels in Germany and the U.S., and lived in Germany for five years. He is married to Penny Mills, CEO of the American Society of Addiction Medicine.