Paul K. Simpson, M.D.

Pennsylvania USA

Phone: 814-867-4266

Paul Simpson is a practicing Internal Medicine physician in State College, Pennsylvania. His studies and writings have focused on relationships between inequality, transportation and health. He has lectured at universities and at medical, transportation and government policy conferences in Germany, Scotland, Ireland, Canada and numerous U.S. cities. 

As a full-time primary care physician, Simpson sees daily the effects of social realities, policy choices, marketing influences and media on the lives and health of those under his care and in his community. His marriage and twin college-age daughters provide first hand insight into the pressures these same forces bear on families. This perspective and familiarity with research revealing the underlying systemic constraints acting on individuals when they make choices detrimental to their health informs his analysis and commentary.

Simpson has been a bicycle commuter since 1975. As an obese adolescent who, at age 18, lost 90 pounds through dietary changes and adoption of bicycling as his preferred transportation mode, he has a unique perspective on causes and potential remedies of eating disorders, malnutrition and the obesity epidemic.

Simpson has served as vice-president and webmaster of the Centre Region Bicycle Coalition. He heads the coalition’s Bicyclist and Pedestrian Safety Task Force. He is co-chair of The People’s Power Exchange, an organization working to develop Tanzanian bike coops. The Exchange ships discarded bicycles to Tanzania in conjunction with an educational exchange of artists between North America and Africa.

Simpson’s lectures have focused on:

• Community destruction and the negative health impacts resulting from sprawl development and our society’s excessive reliance on automobiles.
• The role of physicians in designing, promoting, and developing communities which make physical activity a normal part of daily life.
• Recognizing and mitigating the impacts of social inequality on human health.
• How systemic inequality in transportation policy leads to detrimental status effects on health.
• How the War on Terror has been used to discriminate against pedestrians, bicyclists, and users of mass transit.
• How globalization undermines health by affecting transportation systems.

Paul K. Simpson, M.D.
1301 East Branch Road
State College, PA 16801
814-867-4266 (H)

814-574-6334 (C)

570-726-7992 (O)