Joseph W. Thompson, MD, MPH, is president emeritus of ACHI. He is also a professor of medicine and public health at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Medicine, where he works to expand data availability for research to guide policy decisions across the nation.
Thompson has played an integral role in the development of key health policies and programs in Arkansas, including the Arkansas Tobacco Settlement Act, the Clean Indoor Air Act, the statewide trauma system, and the state’s innovative approach to Medicaid expansion, now known as Arkansas Health and Opportunity for Me, or ARHOME. He served as Arkansas’s inaugural surgeon general from 2005 to 2015 in the administrations of Governors Mike Huckabee (R) and Mike Beebe (D). Thompson was also the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s first Child and Adolescent Health Scholar, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar, and assistant vice president of the National Committee for Quality Assurance.
He has received numerous national awards, including recognitions by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the American Medical Association, the National Committee for Quality Assurance, and the National Association of Health Data Organizations. He has also been honored with lifetime achievement awards from the National Network of Public Health Institutes and the American Academy of Pediatrics and has been elected to the membership of the National Academy of Medicine.
Thompson earned his medical degree from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and a Master of Public Health degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.