Dr. Sally Simpson will serve as the new Interim Chair of the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice (CCJS) at the University of Maryland (UMD), beginning July 1, 2021.

Dr. Simpson has been a faculty member at the university since 2002 and will also continue to serve as Director of the Center for the Study of Business Ethics, Regulation, and Crime (C-BERC), an active unit within BSOS, CCJS, and the Robert H. Smith School of Business. Dr. Simpson was the vice-chair (2017-21) of the Committee on Law and Justice, National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, Medicine, and past president (2019-20) of the American Society of Criminology (ASC).

Dr. Simpson is the 2018 recipient of the ASC Edwin H. Sutherland Award and an ASC fellow. She has served as president of the Association of Doctoral Programs in Criminology and Criminal Justice. She is the former chair of the crime, law, and deviance section of the American Sociological Association and past president of the White-Collar Crime Research Consortium. Dr. Simpson is a recipient of the Herbert Bloch Award from the American Society of Criminology. In 2010, she was named Woman of the Year by the President's Commission on Women's Issues at the University of Maryland. Dr. Simpson won the Gilbert Geis Lifetime Achievement Award from the National White-Collar Crime Center and the White-Collar Crime Research Consortium in 2013.

“I look forward to the honor of leading CCJS again (albeit on an interim basis).  The past 15 months have been challenging, but under Gary's leadership, the department has made great strides.  I hope to build on these successes moving forward,” Dr. Simpson said.

Dr. Simpson succeeds Dr. Gary LaFree, who served as chair of CCJS for three years.