Carolyn Thompson brings the spirit of a lifelong Vol to her new role as chair of the Dean’s Advisory Board.
Carolyn Thompson forged a unique path in her undergraduate UT experience, understanding the interdisciplinary advantages of the College of Arts and Sciences at a time when not everyone shared her foresight. The fifth-generation UT student from Collierville, Tennessee, remembers strange looks she would get when she told people she was an English major with pre-med plans.
“People asked, ‘How is that going to work?’” said Thompson. “It turns out that it worked pretty well.”
From that foundation, she built a successful medical career as a gynecologist and a leader—both as chief medical officer for a healthcare tech start-up and a consultant for entrepreneurial companies developing medical products. Along the way, her generous contributions for students and the college show her profound commitment to her belief in education, community, and enriching lives.
“Education is more than preparation for a job or a way to earn a living,” said Thompson. “Everyone has to prepare themselves for a career—the ability to support themselves and their families—but I think college education is also about learning how to live a full life.”
She has seen firsthand how the arts and sciences experience builds valuable skills—communication, critical thinking, and empathy—that serve people across careers and add broader understanding through lifelong interests like reading, theater, and music. She has maintained a passion for making human connections through shared stories.
“That’s an enormous part of practicing medicine,” said Thompson. “You have to know how to deal with other people and meet them at whatever place they may be when they show up in your ER or your exam room. It has really made me a much better physician than I would be otherwise.”
Volunteer Connections: From Family to Community
On her way to landing at Rocky Top in 1985, Thompson grew up in a family steeped in sports and UT culture. She and her brother both played sports, and even weekend chores would find them tuned in to Vols football.
“Saturday afternoons we might be out in the yard raking leaves, and Dad had (legendary Vols commentator) John Ward on the transistor radio. That was a really big deal,” she said. “We’d be watching the game on TV and still listen to John Ward on the radio.”
These family traditions helped her grow a lifelong community of friends and colleagues while at UT—making connections even during a gap year between graduation and going to medical school at the UT Health Science Center College of Medicine.
“One of the watershed times in my life was the English department drama trip to the UK that I took in the summer of 1989,” said Thompson. “I tell people that I took a gap year when doing that wasn’t something that people typically did. At the time, I was frankly a little embarrassed by it. I look back on it now, going on 40 years later, and it’s one of the best times of my life. I made three friends on that trip that I’m still in touch with every day.”
Paying it Forward for New Volunteers
For fellow alumni considering ways to give to UT, Thompson recommends thinking about things that made an impact for their own Vol experience.
“I encourage them to have conversations about what their experience was like, and what was meaningful to them,” said Thompson. “Then to translate that into something that could be meaningful for a student now.”
Thompson supports student travel through the Dr. C. Thompson Fund for Study Abroad, the Center for Global Engagement, and other areas so more students can have life-changing experiences like she did. Her big-picture goal is to provide opportunities for students who may lack the financial means to travel, potentially opening new doors for their future careers.
“I choose to support these areas because travel abroad was so pivotal for me,” she said. “To have that trip right in that time made such a difference for me, so being able to support students going on those trips is very meaningful. Last summer, I got a card from a student that I sponsored, and the last sentence was everything I wanted to hear: ‘This trip changed my life.’”
by Randall Brown