Alison Thompson

Dr. Alison Thompson has worked for the past 16 years as a full time humanitarian volunteer.

Dr. Alison Thompson began her journey on September 11, 2001, during the attacks in New York, where she roller bladed downtown to help as a first responder. She lived at Ground Zero for the next 9 months collecting body parts and running a first aid station. Thompson lost many close friends on Sept. 11, which changed the direction of her life in service to others.

Over the last 16 years, Thompson has run refugee and internally displaced persons camps along with setting up and directing field hospitals in Sri Lanka, Haiti, Philippines, Greece (Syrian and Iraq refugees), Turkey, Nepal, New Orleans and in New York during Superstorm Sandy.

In 2001, Thompson founded 'The Third Wave' volunteer organization and leads a network of over 50,000 volunteers and followers from around the world. She works at the grassroots level helping to create sustainable and innovative solutions. Thompson leads Third Wave volunteers by focusing on the gaps, no matter how complex or simple. This earned her the title of the 'Angel of Galle' in Sri Lanka when helping re-build a 3,000 person village and setting up CTEC- the first Tsunami Early-warning disaster center In Sri Lanka, Thompson also helped develop a Tsunami Museum and children's learning center.

In 2008, Thompson stepped up with Sean Penn for the “Dirty Hands Caravan,” which inspired 200 Coachella concert goers to join them on a volunteering, cross-country camping trip. In bio-diesel buses, the group volunteered for two weeks all over the USA helping run a Leukemia drive, AIDS and May Day marches and cleaning up the environment. The trip ended in New Orleans to assist in rebuilding the Ninth Ward — three years after Katrina.

Since 2013, Thompson has helped lead a 3,000 student Peace march in the South side of Chicago with the Perspectives Charter Schools and is on the Miami planning committee for the annual One Billion Women Rising campaign, the largest gender-based violence movement in the world.

In 2010 after the Haiti earthquake she teamed up with Sean Penn again and helped run his 70,000 person IDP camp and medical clinic which saved countless lives and birthed hundreds of babies.

The same gaps made her run a gender based violence family medical clinic in Cité Soleil, Haiti, called We Advance, alongside Maria Bello, Aleda Frishman and Barbara Guillaume servicing an area with over 400,000 Haitians for 5 years.

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