UP FRONT
Pulling Back the Curtain
Alexis Thompson, MD, MPH
In this edition, Alexis A. Thompson, MD, MPH, speaks about her career studying and working
with patients with hemoglobin disorders – and discovering a centuries-old link to medicine.
Dr. Thompson is head of the hematology section of the Division of Hematology Oncology
Transplantation at the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, where she also serves
as the A. Watson and Sarah Armour Endowed Chair for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders. In
addition, Dr. Thompson is associate director of Equity and Minority Health at the Robert H. Lurie
Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University. She is 2018 President of the American
Society of Hematology.
What was your first job?
When I was 16 years old, I worked
at McDonald’s. My first paycheck
was a whopping $74.
What was your dream job
when you were growing up?
I briefly toyed with the idea of
becoming an elementary school
teacher. But really, medicine was
an early and consistent career
goal. Neither of my parents was
involved in medicine – my father
worked for a telecommunications
company and my mother was
a stay-at-home mom before
becoming a nurse later in life.
I’m the second of four children.
We were born and raised in Los
Angeles in a very modest home.
My parents were supportive of
education, in general; to them,
it boiled down to working hard
and doing what was necessary to
achieve your goals.
My brother and I attended
college together in Claremont,
California. We shared an old blue
Volkswagen Beetle, as well as an
interest in medicine. He is now an
emergency-medicine physician in
Los Angeles.
What was it about medicine
that attracted you?
Two things: I loved science and
I wanted to make a difference.
I saw medicine as an agent
for social change, and when
I started medical school, I
envisioned becoming a primary-
care physician, working in a
community-based practice.
I suppose I still see myself as
an activist, hoping to make a
difference, but now in a slightly
different way.
I also had an interest in
genealogy, which led me to a
more ancestral connection to
medicine: Sophia B. Jones was
one of the first black women in
the U.S. to attend medical school,
graduating from the University
of Michigan School of Medicine
in 1885. Her younger brother was
my great grandfather. They were
born and raised in Canada – the
children of free people of color
– and came to the U.S. to live in
Ann Arbor when Sophia started
at the University of Michigan. She
was one of the founding faculty
for a nursing school at Spelman
College. I have an old sepia-toned
photo of her in my office that has
looked over my shoulder and has
kept me company through most
of my career. I graduated from
medical school 98 years after her
and our birthdates are just shy of
100 years apart. I can’t help but
admire her pioneering spirit.
When did you decide to
focus in hematology?
I did an elective in pediatric
hematology with Kwaku Ohene-
Frempong, MD, when I was a
fourth-year medical student at
“[My distant relative] Sophia
B. Jones was one of the first
black women in the U.S. to
attend medical school. ... I
can’t help but admire her
pioneering spirit.”
ASHClinicalNews.org
Top left: Dr. Thompson with her husband, Garry.
Right: On a trip to Barcelona, Spain.
Bottom: Sophia B. Jones’s (left) and Dr. Thompson’s
(right) photos from medical school.
Tulane University. He became
one of my first mentors. He was
a remarkable clinician-scientist
who directed the sickle cell and
thalassemia programs. It was
inspiring to watch him switch
gears from interacting with a
group of patients with complex
diseases to explaining the molecular
basis of sickle cell disease or beta
thalassemia, then engaging a family
about a patient’s diagnosis. He set
a striking example of the type of
hematologist I wanted to be.
Through residency, I
was fortunate to have many
experiences that brought me
to hematology, including
opportunities to work alongside
other talented hematologists and
oncologists. There are so many
that I can’t single any one out!
Mentorship has played a large role
in shaping my career journey.
Was Dr. Ohene-Frempong
also your entry into the field
of hemoglobin disorders?
Yes, he was instrumental in that
decision. My time with him
inspired me to continue growing
my knowledge base and deepened
my excitement about the field
of hemoglobin disorders. With
his guidance, I opted to do my
training at the Children’s Hospital
of Philadelphia (CHOP), which is
where he trained, where many of
my future mentors had trained,
and where I spent a good portion
of my career.
It was while I was at CHOP
that my excitement about the lab
truly took hold. As a physician
in the laboratory, I saw that
discoveries made in the lab had
an enormous potential to make an
impact on patients’ lives. So, when
I continued my training at CHOP,
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