Jan Thompson | SIU

School of Journalism and Advertising

Professor Jan Thompson is the first female permanent Director in the 78-year history of the School of Journalism and Advertising. Her professional work crosses various genres such as music, sports, and history. With 15 Emmy nominations, she has won Emmys for original music, directing and writing.

Her most recent long form creative work is Ben Steele American. Professor Thompson co-produced, wrote and edited this 8-episode podcast with Alec Baldwin. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, she has been directing multi-camera live stream Operas and Music recitals for the last four years. She has worked with the Chicago Opera Theater, New York Met Opera Guild and Valhalla Media.

Professor Thompson’s main body of work is about the American prisoner-of-war experience under Imperial Japan during World War II. This includes a trilogy of three documentaries, radio series, podcast, websites, articles and a book. Survival Through Art was completed in 2018 and narrated by Alec Baldwin. The documentary The Tragedy of Bataan was broadcast nationally on PBS/NPR stations. This half hour documentary and five part radio series was also narrated by Alec Baldwin. Never The Same was narrated by Loretta Swit (MASH-Hot Lips) with additional voice work by Ed Asner, Alec Baldwin, Jamie Farr, Mike Farrell, Robert Forester, Robert Loggia, don Murray, Christopher Murray, John O’Hurley, Kathleen Turner, Robert Wagner and Sam Waterston.

Professor Thompson’s other professional work includes, Hidden Journeys, a prime time documentary series for PBS that featured the food and culture in India, China, Mexico, South Korea and Turkey. Food For The Ancestors has been considered the definitive piece on the Mexican holiday Days of the Dead. In addition, PBS extended the original contract for the entire series to twenty years.

Before moving into documentary filmmaking Professor Thompson was a producer and director for live sports. She was the studio director for the Chicago Bulls, White Sox and Black Hawks. In addition, she directed the live pre and post game shows. She directed the first live call in sports series in Chicago called On The Bench. And produced public service announcements for the Michael Jordan Foundation.

Professor Thompson has been teaching at SIU since 2000 and was tenured in the Radio, Television and Digital Media Department. She is the faculty adviser for the student group alt.news since 2000. Alt.news has won 31 professional Emmys and 7 First Place College Awards.