Candidate Biography (submitted by candidate):

BA from the College of Wooster, Wooster, OH; MA from Wayne State, Detroit, MI; MFA from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA

Married to photographer, Susan Nichol Thompson; two children and four grandchildren.

Mr. Thompson past service includes being Chair of the Drama and Speech Department of Transylvania College, Lexington KY; television producer at WQED Television, Pittsburgh; Director of the statewide Pennsylvania Aesthetic Education Program and Executive Directorships at The Performing Arts Foundation of Long Island and the Westport Arts Center, Westport, Connecticut. He has also been a classroom teacher and artist-in-resident working with elementary and middle school children.

In Wilmington, besides his 10 years as Executive Director of the Child Advocacy Commission of the Lower Cape Fear, he serves on the Board of Carousel Center for Abuse Children and the Community Services Committee of the First Presbyterian Church. His statewide work includes active membership in NC Covenant with Children and volunteer regional coordinator for Moveon.Org.

As Executive Director of the Child Advocacy Commission I was in the trenches daily working on behalf of children and families to improve early childhood education, to reduce child abuse, to improve juvenile justice, to advocate for better nutrition and to reduce the achievement gap faced by minority students in our schools.      

My goal is to insure that every child has access to an excellent education and that they are safe and treated fairly.  My priorities are to free teachers from administrative encumbrances and to provide them state of the art training so that their classroom are relevant, dynamic and motivating;  to support students in pursuing pathways to personal, social and economic success, and to establish a school system that focuses like a laser on the future in anticipation of an emerging global economy where students, whatever they choose to do, must be prepared to meet increased competition and challenge.