Dr. Dana Thompson

Dr. Dana Thompson is the Lauren D. Holinger Professor of Pediatric Otolaryngology and Division Head at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She also serves as the Vice Chair for the Department of Surgery and the Executive Physician Director for Ambulatory Practice. She received undergraduate and medical degrees in the six-year BA/MD program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She completed a master’s degree in clinical outcomes research at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine, the certificate program for emerging leaders at the Mayo Clinic and MBA from National Louis University. She is uniquely fellowship trained in Laryngology and Pediatric Otolaryngology. Including a faculty position, residency, and a laryngology/dysphagia fellowship, she spent 18 years of her career at the Mayo Clinic and was the founding chair of the Division of Pediatric Otolaryngology. Other leadership roles at Mayo include Clinical Practice Chair for Mayo Clinic Children’s Center, Research Chair for the Department of Otolaryngology, and a member of the Mayo Rochester Fee Committee. In 2011, she achieved the academic rank of Professor, making her the first African-American woman professor in the specialty of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery in the United States. A portion of her career was spent at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital as fellow under the preeminent pediatric otolaryngologist of our time, Dr. Robin Cotton; she later served on the faculty as the Director of the Adult Airway Reconstruction Program and member of the Pediatric Aerodigestive & Sleep Center.