Tulane swimmer gives her ‘A stroke’ in the pool and in academics

Tulane swimmer Kaitlin Simpson has had tons on her plate.

Besides managing her studies at Tulane — one of the nation’s premier academic institutions — Simpson has spent the past four years fitting college athletics into her schedule. She has also been the president of the Tulane Student Athlete Advisory Council, a group that provides insight on the student-athlete experience at the university, the American Athletic Conference and nationally.

Simpson and her teammates also helped revive a dormant swimming program with local Special Olympics athletes, a group that meets weekly to teach swimming skills to special needs athletes. In addition, she has worked 20 hours per week as an intern in administration with LCMC Health at Touro Infirmary in New Orleans since February.

“I have done my best to make the absolute most of every opportunity Tulane has afforded me.”

Kaitlin Simpson, Class of 2018

A native of Beaconsfield, Quebec, Canada, Simpson thanks Tulane for those opportunities.

“Tulane has a community that has pushed me into doing things I never would have imagined for myself as a freshman,” Simpson said. “There are so many people out there who deserve these opportunities and just didn’t have my luck, so I have done my best to make the absolute most of every opportunity Tulane has afforded me.”

For all her extracurricular activities, Simpson was no slouch in the pool, either. A team captain, she will leave the Green Wave holding eight of the top 15 overall times in the 100-yard butterfly and eight of the top 18 times in the 200-yard freestyle relay. She won eight medals — awarded for finishing first, second or third in events — at conference championships during her career and holds school records in five events.

She has already earned her bachelor’s degree in public health, and now she’s finishing her master’s in health-systems management from the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. At the end of May, she will travel to Indianapolis to participate in the NCAA’s national Career in Sports Forum, an opportunity afforded to just 200 student-athletes across the country each year. There, she can see what a career in sports administration may look like.

One day, though, Simpson hopes to fulfill her longtime dream of working for the United Nations with the World Health Organization.

“I’m proud to graduate with both my undergraduate and graduate degrees from Tulane,” Simpson said. “The quality of education at Tulane is unparalleled. Getting my degrees here means that I am leaving more than prepared for my future career and with an amazing network of Tulane classmates, professors and alumni that will continue to be resources and teammates for the rest of my life.”