Pete Simpson Historian, educator and politician Pete Simpson has received the LaDonna Zall Compassionate Witness Award from the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation. The award is a way to honor individuals who may not have been directly affected by the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II but devoted their lives to bring awareness and light to the injustice. Dakota Russell, the executive director of the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, said historian, educator and politician Pete Simpson is a perfect example of this because of his long-standing support of this cause. Russel said Simpson visited the internment camp as a boy scout and has vivid memories.