Bill Simpson
Chief Executive Officer
Behind the Door:
Bill Simpson was born and raised in Maryland. As an undergraduate at Frostburg State University in the Maryland mountains, Bill majored in Political Science and History and was an intern in the United States Senate. He completed his graduate studies in American History at the University of Maryland. Bill has 36 years of experience in the national security, business, and nonprofit sectors. In partnership with Board Chairman Dan Crow, Bill founded Open Door America in 2005. Bill is the proud father of Andrew and grandfather of Miles. In his free time, Bill listens to public affairs podcasts (his current favorite is The Axe Files), rocks to Jackson Browne and Keith Urban, reads history and social commentary, and roots for his beloved Baltimore Orioles and Baltimore Ravens. Contact Bill at (410) 775-5437 or write to bsimpson@opendooramerica.org.
Bill Shares:
"Starting and sustaining Open Door America has been the most challenging and rewarding assignment of my professional life. Elevating poverty to the status of a 'real and present danger' is my primary concern each and every day. While I find most Americans to be goodhearted and fair-minded, this job has taught me that the nation is tragically ill-informed about the causes and consequences of poverty. It is my mission in life to change how Americans, especially economically-secure Americans, think about poverty."
From Our Blog
2018 Poverty and the Urgency of Prisoner Reentry and Life Restoration
Since 2005 Open Door America has worked to unlock the secret codes of intergenerational poverty in America’s inner cities. Now in year thirteen, our story has greater meaning and urgency than ever before. Having come on line just nine years after metamorphic welfare reform in 1996, we were an immediate beneficiary of the raised social awareness generated by the faith-based initiative movement of the early 2000's. By the end of our first decade, however, a sharp decline in nationwide community development investment, especially in the key area of federal housing, shifted our thinking away from traditional block-by-block redevelopment strategies to individualized programming targeting heads of households, young fathers, and in particular, ex-offenders and current offenders who hold sway in the poorest neighborhoods. Today, 22 years into the nation’s endless rancorous debate over poverty and government spending, we operate in a political and cultural environment where the very existence of entrenched poverty is now openly and counter-factually questioned in Washington. We believe the lessons learned from our improbable survivor's journey and the promising potential of our current efforts to retrieve first-time offenders and restore vetted recidivists are essential to this discussion and critical to America's social and economic future.
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