Phyllis Thompson, Ph.D., LCSW

Advisory Board Member

Phyllis Thompson, Ph.D., LCSW, obtained her PhD in 2010 from the University of Utah’s College of Social Work. Her interest in how environment affects gene expression (Epigenetics) and the neuro system within human development was ignited when she taught for the University of Tennessee, Knoxville College of Social Work at the Nashville campus from 2007-2009. Between 2009-2014 she served as an Assistant Professor for Our Lady of the Lake Worden School of Social Work in San Antonio, Texas. Dr. Thompson was appointed as MSW Director in 2013 and promoted to Associate Professor prior to leaving and returning to the University of Tennessee during the summer of 2014. She has extensive experience in curriculum and program development in evidence-based clinical practice and teaching graduate level MSW and DSW social work courses in the classroom and online.

Dr. Thompson’s clinical background includes serving patients by providing evaluative and therapeutic services to thousands of families when there were concerns of sexual abuse from 1998-2008 at Our Kids Center in Nashville, TN. She also maintained her own private practice where she provided services to adults who experienced trauma.  In 2004 she was promoted to Instructor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of General Pediatrics at Vanderbilt University and in 2005 she was also hired as a Clinical Instructor for Vanderbilt University School of Nursing for their forensic program. These appointments provided her the opportunity to teach professionals and medical providers from across the country about evidence-based practices and skills for responding to children and families when there were concerns of sexual abuse and violence.