Dana Thompson

Dana M. Thompson, MD, MS, MBA, is an internationally recognized pediatric ENT surgeon, healthcare executive, and board leader whose career spans clinical innovation, health system transformation, and professional society leadership. She serves as the Lauren D. Holinger Professor and Division Head of Pediatric Otolaryngology at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, where she leads Illinois’ largest pediatric ENT program, with more than 32,000 ambulatory visits and nearly 8,500 surgical procedures annually. Her prior Lurie roles include Vice Chair of Surgery and Executive Physician Director for Ambulatory Practice, where she helped lead enterprise ambulatory operations, patient access, digital health, and value-based transformation.

Previously, she served as inaugural Chair of Pediatric Otolaryngology and inaugural Clinical Practice Chair of the Mayo Clinic Children’s Center. At Mayo, she established the institution’s first pediatric otolaryngology service line and built an integrated, financially sustainable model of specialty care.

The world’s foremost authority on laryngomalacia, Dr. Thompson has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and has been invited to share her expertise in more than 400 presentations across six continents. In 2011, she became the first Black woman in the United States to achieve the rank of Professor in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.

She serves as Board Chair of The Chicago Network, its first physician chair; Associate Executive Vice President of the Triological Society; and former President and Treasurer of the American Broncho-Esophagological Association. She is also a member of The Chicago Economic Club. Across her career, she has mentored, impacted and developed more than 200 students, clinicians, physicians, and administrators.