Dr. Lisa Thompson is an accomplished scholar whose work bridges nursing science and environmental health to address critical global health challenges. She currently serves as Associate Professor in the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University and holds affiliated faculty status in the Department of Environmental Health at the Rollins School of Public Health. Previously, she established her research program at the University of California, San Francisco where she served as faculty before joining Emory in 2017. Dr. Thompson earned her PhD and MS in Environmental Health Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley, complemented by her nursing education including her BSN, MSN, and FNP degrees from San Francisco State University, and her foundational BA in Latin American Studies from Tulane University.
Dr. Thompson's pioneering research program focuses on household air pollution in low-resource countries, employing rigorous implementation science methodologies to design, implement, and evaluate interventions that reduce exposure to harmful pollutants. Her work has advanced understanding of environmental health impacts on vulnerable populations, particularly examining how transitions to cleaner energy sources can improve respiratory health outcomes in underserved communities worldwide. Through her expertise in environmental health sciences and nursing practice, she has developed innovative frameworks that bridge clinical care with environmental intervention strategies to address health disparities. Her scholarship has established critical connections between environmental exposures and health outcomes, providing evidence that informs both clinical practice and public health policy in resource-constrained settings.
Beyond her research contributions, Dr. Thompson demonstrates significant leadership in environmental health through her role as Director of Graduate Studies for the PhD program in nursing at Emory University and as a member of the Network for Evaluation and Implementation Sciences at Emory University (NEISE). She serves on multiple influential committees including the Sustainability Vision Committee for the Emory Office of Sustainability and the Emory University Senate's Committee on the Environment, while also co-chairing the research working group for the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments. As a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and member of the Academy's Expert Panel on Environmental and Public Health, she continues to shape the integration of environmental health into nursing education and practice. Her ongoing work seeks to develop more effective implementation strategies that can scale environmental health interventions to reach broader populations while training the next generation of nurse scientists to address complex environmental health challenges.
