Alexis A. Thompson Inaugurated as President of ASH for 2018 Term

Alexis A. Thompson, MD, MPH

Alexis A. Thompson, MD, MPH

The American Society of Hematology (ASH) has announced that Alexis A. Thompson, MD, MPH, has taken up the helm as its president for 2018. She will serve for a 1-year term through December 2018.

Thompson will be joined by president-elect Roy L. Silverstein, MD, and vice president Stephanie J. Lee, MD.

A world renown expert in sickle cell disease and thalassemia, Thompson is also the head of the Hematology Section of the Division of Hematology Oncology Transplantation and director of the Comprehensive Thalassemia Program at the Ann Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Illinois. She additionally serves as the hospital’s A. Watson and Sarah Armour Endowed Chair for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders and as an associate director of equity and minority health at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University in Chicago.

Thompson has been actively involved with ASH for over 20 years, including serving as an ASH councilor from 2010-2014. Currently, she is a member of the ASH Sickle Cell Task Force and a reviewer for ASH’s journal,Blood. She has also served as co-chair for the ASH Annual Meeting Education Program, as a mentor for the Society’s Minority Medical Student Award Program, and has been on the ASH Committee on Government Affairs. She has held positions in numerous other committees as well, including the US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorders in Newborns and Children.

“We are experiencing unprecedented expansion in scientific knowledge, particularly in hematology, and ASH will continue to provide a platform for this new information through its journals and conferences,” said Thompson in a statement. “As ASH president, I support ASH efforts to accelerate scientific discoveries that will lead to more effective treatments and improved patient outcomes. I also look forward to growing the society’s international stature as a global leader in hematology, bringing investigators together and contributing to capacity-building efforts.”

In her new role, Thompson will work to enhance the trainee pipeline for hematology, specifically for non-malignant hematology, and enhance ASH’s global strategy to promote the best science and patient care throughout the world through international collaborations in hematology. This includes the expansion into regions with unmet scientific and medical needs, such as Latin America and Africa.

Thompson’s interests include sickle cell disease, thalassemia, transfusional iron overload, and stem cell transplantation for pediatric patients. Her research focuses on developmentally regulated genes in early hematopoiesis, and she is an investigator on National Institutes of Health—funded multi-center clinical trials in addition to her own institutional clinical studies.

She has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Minority Medical Faculty Development Award and the Minority Scholar Award in Cancer Research from the American Association for Cancer Research.

Thompson received her medical degree from Tulane University School of Medicine. She later went on to complete her residency in pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, California and her fellowship in hematology/oncology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Additionally, she earned her masters of public health degree at the University of California of Los Angeles, California and is board-certified in pediatric hematology and oncology and general pediatrics.