{"id":13478,"date":"2026-08-28T11:10:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T16:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/?p=13478"},"modified":"2026-08-28T11:10:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T16:10:17","slug":"transforming-lives-with-the-thompson-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/2026\/08\/28\/transforming-lives-with-the-thompson-center\/","title":{"rendered":"Transforming lives with the Thompson Center"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Thompson-Center.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1365\" src=\"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Thompson-Center.jpg\" alt=\"Faculty and staff outside the new Thompson Center facility.\" class=\"wp-image-13482\" style=\"width:365px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Thompson-Center.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Thompson-Center-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Thompson-Center-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Thompson-Center-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Thompson-Center-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Faculty and staff outside the new Thompson Center facility.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As we kick off another exciting semester, we\u2019re also celebrating the growth of <a href=\"https:\/\/thompsoncenter.missouri.edu\/\">the Thompson Center for Autism &amp; Neurodevelopment<\/a>, which marked <a href=\"https:\/\/showme.missouri.edu\/2026\/university-of-missouri-unveils-new-thompson-center-building-for-world-class-autism-care\/\">the grand opening<\/a> of their new facility in May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Already, the expanded Thompson Center is making a remarkable impact. The center recorded more than 21,000 patient visits and nearly 1,000 autism evaluations last fiscal year. Both are new records and are expected to increase in the year ahead. The waitlist for services has also decreased by 50%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Nancy-and-Bill-Thompson.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1480\" height=\"2219\" src=\"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Nancy-and-Bill-Thompson.jpg\" alt=\"Nancy and Bill Thompson\" class=\"wp-image-13480\" style=\"width:auto;height:350px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Nancy-and-Bill-Thompson.jpg 1480w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Nancy-and-Bill-Thompson-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Nancy-and-Bill-Thompson-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Nancy-and-Bill-Thompson-768x1151.jpg 768w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Nancy-and-Bill-Thompson-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Nancy-and-Bill-Thompson-1366x2048.jpg 1366w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1480px) 100vw, 1480px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Nancy and Bill Thompson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The team at the Thompson Center continues to change lives through breakthrough research and community outreach. In the last year, faculty published 35 impactful research articles, and staff trained more than 1,100 professionals through the <a href=\"https:\/\/thompsoncenter.missouri.edu\/afb\/\">Autism Friendly Business<\/a> initiative. Beyond the numbers, the Thompson Center team is driven to make a difference, while setting a world-class standard of care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We remain deeply grateful for the visionary leadership of Bill and Nancy Thompson, as well as the Thompson Foundation for Autism &amp; Neurodevelopment, the State of Missouri and all supporters. The Thompsons saw the importance of this new facility and its transformative potential for our community. Their incredible dedication is changing lives and creating new opportunities for the next generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the support of the Thompsons and the entire Thompson Center community, we are proud to meet the needs of families in Missouri and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2014\u00a0Mun<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As we kick off another exciting semester, we\u2019re also celebrating the growth of the Thompson Center, which marked the grand opening of their new facility in May.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13478"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13487,"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13478\/revisions\/13487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}