Title: Founder and Principal Consultant
Company: Veralign Consulting Collective
Location: Saint Louis, Missouri, United States
Amber D. Simpson, PhD, Founder and Principal Consultant at Veralign Consulting Collective, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Executives for dedication, achievements, and leadership in Organizational Effectiveness and Business Strategy with Human Capital.
Dr. Simpson has established herself as a leading expert in organizational effectiveness, culture transformation, organizational development and business strategy with a focus on human capital. Her career spans nearly two decades and is marked by significant achievements across multiple industries, including big-box retail, consumer goods, services, financial services and education.
In 2025, Dr. Simpson began serving as an independent consultant and founded Veralign Consulting Collective. Her current work centers on leadership development, coaching high-potential executive leaders and guiding organizations through restructuring initiatives. She defines transformation as aligning functional areas with strategic objectives and integrating business transformation with technology to identify inefficiencies, improve forecasting and strengthen workforce planning. Dr. Simpson’s strategic goal is to help organizations transform their business models for greater agility and performance. She is also developing targeted training programs, identifying essential skills and refining recruitment strategies to build stronger teams.
From 2022 to 2025, Dr. Simpson served as a senior learning and performance consultant at Edward Jones. In this capacity, she achieved a historic milestone by creating the firm’s first unified onboarding program for both field and home office associates. This initiative enhanced employee integration across the U.S. and Canada while generating more than $200,000 in budget savings.
Affiliated with Edward Jones for over five years, Dr. Simpson spent 2016 to 2022 as a senior client experience strategist. From 2020 to 2022, she was a director and capability strategist at Edward Jones. She also held the role of capability strategist in 2020 and department leader for recruitment strategies and financial advisor career development from 2019 to 2020. During her tenure with the organization, Dr. Simpson played a key role in the Client Insights program by conducting research and piloting a new business model known as “Discovery.” Her efforts contributed to the evolution of client engagement strategies within the organization.
Before her tenure at Edward Jones, Dr. Simpson was the vice president of strategy and insights at U.S. Bank from 2014 to 2016. She first joined U.S. Bank in 2006 as the vice president and manager of national multicultural markets, where she spent 10 years. Among her most notable accomplishments was founding the company’s first business resource group for associates who identified as allies to African American employees. This pioneering initiative became the model for similar groups supporting other employee segments and laid the foundation for U.S. Bank’s nationally recognized diversity, equity and inclusion program.
Earlier in her career, Dr. Simpson held roles at The Home Depot as a regional store leadership program manager. She also worked for CPI Corporation as a strategic business operations manager and for Convergys as a team lead for the e-commerce division. Moreover, Dr. Simpson worked as an English-as-a-second-language instructor for adults and taught French and Spanish in after-school programs for kindergarten through eighth-grade students.
Dr. Simpson received a Bachelor of Arts in French language and literature and international business from Washington University in St. Louis in 1998, followed by an Executive Master of Business Administration in international business from Saint Louis University in 2007 and a Doctor of Philosophy in education administration, leadership and policy studies with a concentration in kindergarten through 12th grade administration from the University of Missouri, Saint Louis, in 2014.
Further distinguishing herself through numerous credentials, Dr. Simpson received certification as a teacher, a superintendent and a principal. She also earned designations as an enterprise design thinking advocate and practitioner from IBM and, among others, a senior certified professional through the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM).
Dr. Simpson’s professional affiliations include participation on the program and professional development committee of the Society of Multicultural Professionals in Human Resources, involvement with SHRM and membership in the National Black MBA Association. Meanwhile, her civic engagement includes serving as secretary for Gateway 180 since 2018 and membership on the dean’s cabinet for the college of education at the University of Missouri, Saint Louis, since 2018. She also held various board positions with organizations like the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and Forsyth School, and has served as a leadership-level donor to United Way of Greater St. Louis.
In light of her achievements, Dr. Simpson has earned several prestigious awards, beginning with her inclusion in the 40 Under 40 by the Saint Louis Business Journal in 2007. She later received a Diverse Business Leader Award from the Saint Louis Business Journal in 2011, was named a St. Louis American Young Leader by The St. Louis American Foundation in 2012, and was highlighted among the Most Influential Business Women by the Saint Louis Business Journal in 2016. Dr. Simpson attributes her success to the guidance of mentors, adherence to values such as integrity, respect and service, and to embracing vulnerability by admitting mistakes or uncertainties when necessary.
As a leader, Dr. Simpson focuses on clarity of shared goals, honoring each individual’s role within an organization, providing guidance and building trust. Her career reflects a commitment to authentic leadership rooted in mentorship, values-driven decision-making and fostering environments where individuals are empowered to excel.
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