Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh, Thompson is a public service psychiatrist who has focused his career on community and population health and improving psychiatric services. He has worked in a clinical capacity across the spectrum of mental health care, research, psychiatric pedagogy, administration and managed care. He has served as Medical Director of the Center for Mental Health Services in Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, helping develop initiatives in global health, and as Co-Chief Medical Director of the Harrisburg State Hospital. Currently he is Chief Medical Officer of Pennsylvania Psychiatric Leadership Council, a project focused on improving public service psychiatry. He did his psychiatric residency at Jacobi Hospital/Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and served on the faculty of Yale University on a National Research Service Award.