Kendra Simpson

Background

About Kendra Simpson

Kendra Simpson is a now a tax senior manager in Passthroughs at Deloitte Washington National Tax. She was previously a tax associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP. Prior to completing law school at New York University, she was the mentor recruitment and community of practice coordinator for the Stem Valley Mentoring Coalition, a part of the US2020 project. She previously worked as an assistant editor at Nature Medicine and a postdoctoral research associate in the department of Pathology at the University of Virginia. She defended her doctoral research “A Role for MIF in Tumor Growth and Metastasis,” where she discovered a novel role for Macrophage Migration Inhibitory Factor (MIF) in controlling the abundance of highly-suppressive monocytic myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) to increase tumor growth and metastasis. This establishes a role for both MIF and its control of the immune system as viable therapeutic targets. While a doctoral student, Kendra served as a member of the UVA Graduate Diversity Advisory Board, a mentoring coach of the UVA Mentoring Institute, and the Pathology Department representative on the Graduate Biosciences Society Council, a graduate student board which serves to aid in the academic, professional, and social needs of the biomedical science students at the university. Kendra received her BS in Chemistry from North Carolina State University, where she was a prestigious John T. Caldwell Alumni Scholar and gained experience as a teaching assistant for Organic Chemistry. Prior to pursuing her PhD, Kendra worked briefly as a residue chemist at BASF in Research Triangle Park, NC. Kendra hopes to transition her critical thinking skills obtained at the bench to new career opportunities in tax law, with an additional interest in education.