Kristy Simms

Executive Director of External Affairs

Kristy Simms serves as executive director of external affairs at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. She is UMMC’s primary liaison to federal congressional and administration officials and coordinates overall governmental outreach through oversight of state and local government relations.

Additionally, she leads external relations and engages with a number of community, business and professional associations on behalf of UMMC.  She serves on steering committees for the Association of American Medical College’s government relations representatives group and the Connected Health Initiative. She is also a member of the Fondren Renaissance Foundation board.

An Oxford, Miss. native and graduate of Vanderbilt University, she spent 13 years in Washington, D.C. leading federal policy strategy for two Fortune 500 electric utility companies, Florida Power & Light Company and Entergy Corporation. She specialized in issues related to electricity policy, utility regulation, nuclear power, tax policy and climate change.  She also represented the National Federation of Independent Business, the nation's largest small business trade association, as a lobbyist in the Senate on issues related to regulatory and legal reform, health care, labor and tax policy.

Before entering the private sector, she was energy and environmental policy advisor to former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and worked as policy and appropriations advisor to then-Congressman Roger Wicker. Before going to the nation’s capital, Kristy served as finance director for the inaugural Roger Wicker for Congress campaign.