Dr. Thompson is a Past President of the American Academy of Psychiatry & the Law, current President of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and a Past President of the California Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. In addition to being board certified in Forensic Psychiatry, he also is board certified in Psychiatry, Child &
Adolescent Psychiatry, and Addiction Medicine. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP). He is licensed to practice medicine in California, Texas, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, Arizona, New York, Illinois, and Oklahoma.
Before retiring from Los Angeles County service in 2021, Dr. Thompson served as the Director of the Forensic Psychiatry Division of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health. In that role, he provided leadership, oversight, and direction for all LACDMH programs designed to address the needs of justice-involved populations across the lifespan. He managed a diverse team responsible for collaborating closely with other agencies, organizations, academic institutions, groups, and individuals in their work to eliminate unnecessary incarceration of those with serious mental illnesses. Prior to this, he served for eight years as Medical Director of the Juvenile Justice Mental Health Program and Director of Juvenile Court Mental Health Services for the LACDMH.
Dr. Thompson currently is in private clinical and forensic practice and splits his professional time between Los Angeles and Austin. He is a Voluntary Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He teaches both the forensic and child & adolescent psychiatry fellows. He is an Affiliate Faculty Member at the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin. He also gives lectures on child forensic psychiatric topics to forensic psychiatry fellows at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. He has published several research articles and numerous book chapters in the past. He also served as a section editor for the 3 rd Edition of Principles and Practice of Forensic Psychiatry.