BIO

Consultant Diane Simpson, OLY, MBA, BSJ, is a senior writer, PR marketing communications strategist and experiential event project manager for clients at startups and at nonprofits, and in sports, music entertainment, health care and higher education.  Simpson was one of two rhythmic gymnasts—and the third of nine American individuals ever—on the 1988 U.S. Olympic team, winning two gold medals, two silvers and a bronze medal in her two Pan American Games appearances.  Elected to the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame, Class of 2004, Simpson made the finals in two of her four World Championships appearances, was a finalist in two Goodwill Games, and competed in more than 30 international meets as a U.S. National Team Member. She won more than 20 international medals, three Olympic Festival titles, and 22 national titles—including winning all four event finals and the All-Around title at the 1988 National Championships—during her career.

Simpson worked as a news and sports writer or reporter with NBC, CBS, FOX, ABC, PBS, ESPN, Jefferson Pilot Sports, The Loop, WMVP, The Score, and at the Roanoke Times & World-News, covering five Chicago Marathons, serving as expert for NBC Sports and for Atlanta Olympic Broadcasting at the Olympic Games, and as Turner Sports commentator.  She spent more than a decade at the Chicago Sun-Times and was deputy press secretary to a U.S. senator before work as manager of athlete relations and communications at Chicago 2016. 

Simpson is president of the Midwest Olympians and Paralympians, the regional alumni of athletes under the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, and serves on the U.S. Olympic Assembly and USOPC Sports Awards committees.  An American College of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer and published author in Ron Rapoport’s award-winning From Black Sox to Three-Peats: A Century of Chicago’s Best Sports Writing, as well as an outspoken domestic violence survivor, Simpson graduated from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism with a double major in political science with honors, from Keller Graduate School of Management–earning an MBA with distinction and a marketing concentration–and achieved an MBA certification from Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.  Simpson coaches artistic gymnasts and was the only rhythmic gymnast to twice qualify the United States into the Olympic Games through 2018 with a unique role as the first Evanston Township High School Athletic Hall of Fame member to never earn a varsity letter.