Dr. Alison Thompson

Dr. Alison Thompson is a global humanitarian and Incident Commander with over 25 years of frontline experience managing refugee camps, field hospitals, and resilience hubs in response to natural and man-made disasters. Her work spans crises such as the Syrian, Afghan, Venezuelan, and Ukraine refugee emergencies, as well as disaster response efforts across the United States and in regions including Haiti, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Colombia, and Turkey.

She is the founder of Third Wave Volunteers, a nonprofit organization she launched as a first responder on September 11, 2001, in New York City. The organization has since grown to a network of 30,000 volunteers operating worldwide. Dr. Thompson has led critical missions including managing an 80,000-person internally displaced persons (IDP) camp and field hospital in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake, and building tsunami recovery infrastructure and early-warning systems in Sri Lanka after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

Her work has been recognized with numerous honors, including the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award from President Joe Biden (2022), the Order of Australia from Queen Elizabeth II (2010), the U.S. Army Medal of Excellence (2010), the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award (2019), and the Paul Harris Award from Rotary International (2010). She currently serves as Ambassador to the Haitian Ministry of Environment, a Board Member of MACtown homes for people with disabilities, and on the Advisory Board of the United Nations Chaplains Association.

Dr. Thompson is also a filmmaker and author. Her award-winning documentary "The Third Wave" premiered at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, presented by Sean Penn and Bono, and her book of the same name was published by Random House.

Her current missions include leading medical training and food aid delivery in Ukraine, building water wells for the Wayuu tribes in Colombia’s La Guajira desert, and providing wildfire and hurricane disaster relief across the United States.