Dr. Terry Simpson, MD is a physician, research scientist, weight loss surgeon, cook, author, dad, and a proponent for healthy eating. "And not in that order."
He received his undergraduate, graduate, and medical degrees from The University of Chicago, did his surgical residency at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, served in the Indian Health Service, and ran a program to train future surgeons for a while before entering his own private practice in Arizona, and moving to California in 2020.
When he became a fellow of the American College of Surgeons he was the 22nd Native American to become a surgeon and the first Alaska Native to become one. He was inspired by his father, who grew up in an orphanage in Seward, Alaska and became the first Alaska Native to earn a doctorate.
He was the first surgeon to be certified in the field of Culinary Medicine - which means not only is he up to date with the latest nutrition research but he can cook too! He did his culinary medicine training at the Goldring Institute at Tulane in New Orleans.
When you fill in your name and email below, you will receive the free magazine to your inbox.
Find him on TikTok and all the other channels as @drterrysimpson, with more than a million subscribers combined.
When it comes to food, Dr. Simpson is an advocate of getting the best product and cooking it. His flavor for fruits and vegetables came from his backyard (in Ketchikan, Alaska) and mother's table. Terry's mom, his first teacher in the kitchen, used Alaskan fresh fish, berries from their yard and root vegetables 'like a scientist in a lab.'
"If you don't know how to cook, you are at the mercy of the worst cooks, be it a restaurant, or re-heating processed food - none of which will help you stay healthy."
Some of Dr. Simpson's favorite recipes are found on this site - they are the ones he teaches to his patients on a daily basis.
Dr. Simpson started his career doing molecular research and virology - with DNA engineering. "I loved research but liked people better so I decided to go to medical school."
As an Alaskan Native (of Athabascan descent) he serves on several boards and has helped transform health of all Alaska Natives. He is currently on the Southcentral Foundation Board of Directors – a primary care foundation that has provided a model of health care for the nation. Those transformations led to the prestigious 2011 Malcom Baldridge award for healthcare and then in 2017 they were received the Baldridge award again, the only healthcare agency in the world to win it twice. He is also a member of the Joint Operating Board for the Alaska Native Medical Center. For his work Dr. Simpson received the National Indian Health Board 2013 Area Impact award.
He has been deeply involved in strategic planning in almost every organization and board in which he was been involved, where he has identified, navigated, and managed a large number of advocacy efforts, and has had great success setting the standards for active diversity on several different levels.
Lives in:
He lives along the Central Coast of California.
Find me:
on TikTok @drterrysimpson
on Instagram @drterrysimpsonmd
on Twitter @drterrysimpson
on Facebook @terrysimpsonmd
on Youtube @drterrysimpson