Atlas Week Program Announces Keynote Speaker
The 17th Annual Sam and Marilyn Fox Atlas Week program will be held the week of April 2-8, 2017. The theme for the 2017 Atlas Program is “Visions for Global Change: Start Where You Are. Do What You Can.”
The Atlas Planning Committee has announced that Alison Thompson will deliver the keynote
address at the Atlas Week Signature Symposium at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 6, in
the Wool Ballrooms of Busch Student Center.
Thompson has worked as a full-time volunteer for the past 16 years, running refugee
and internally displaced persons camps and field hospitals in Sri Lanka, Haiti, the
Philippines, Greece (Syrian and Iraq refugees), Turkey, Nepal and numerous disaster
relief efforts around the world. In 2005, she founded CTEC – the first Tsunami Early-Warning
Disaster Center in Sri Lanka – along with a Children's Learning Center and Tsunami
Museum.
In 2012, Thompson was appointed as the first official ambassador to the Haitian Ministry
of Environment, where she still works in reforestation, sustainable energy and cholera
initiatives. In 2010, Thompson was also awarded the Order of Australia for her volunteerism,
bravery and contributions to mankind and the Paul Harris award from Rotary International.
Thompson is known in Sri Lanka as the 'Angel of Galle' where she worked for many years
helping rebuild tsunami ravaged communities.
For the past 12 months, Thompson has worked tirelessly on the island of Lesvos, Greece,
in the epicenter of the Syrian refugee crisis, where millions have fled the war zones
of Syria and Iraq. In Greece, Thompson works as a volunteer paramedic caring for refugees
with hypothermia and war wounds and has developed a large network of volunteers who
support and coordinate direct aid for the refugees. Her mission is “to bring love
and light” to the refugees and to be a voice for humanity for the suffering. Her latest
program is bringing in an innovative origami designed solar lights to the Syrian refugees
in the dark camps. Thompson has personally delivered solar lights to more than 75,000
refugees.
In 2001, Thompson founded the 'Third Wave' volunteer' organization, which has a network
of more than 50,000 volunteers and followers from all across the world. Thompson works
at the grassroots level – living in tents in the communities she is helping – creating
innovative change to help communities work in a more sustainable way. Thompson's motto
is "It's easy to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, but it’s Leadership to be
in the wrong place at the right time!"
In 2010, Thompson flew to Haiti along with Sean Penn and 10 doctors to help after
the earthquake. Together, they managed a 70,000-person IDP camp and field hospital
where she was honored with the 'Commanders Award for Excellence' by the U.S. Military
Joint Task Force Haiti, which also included her work alongside General Simeon Trombitas
and the 82nd Airborne.
For more information or to get involved in the planning process, contact Michelle
Lorenzini at lorenzms@slu.edu or visit the Atlas Week webpage.