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Aline Andres, Ph.D., RD, and Joe Thompson, M.D., MPH
UAMS’ Aline Andres, Ph.D., RD, Joe Thompson, M.D., MPH, Elected to National Academy of Medicine
| LITTLE ROCK — The National Academy of Medicine, a congressionally chartered organization that serves as the scientific academy of the United States, has elected two faculty members at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) to its membership.
Aline Andres, Ph.D., RD, a professor of pediatrics and a leading expert in nutrition, particularly concerning its impact on maternal and infant development, and Joe Thompson, M.D., MPH, a professor of pediatrics and public health, were among 100 members elected during the academy’s annual meeting Oct. 20 in Washington, D.C.
Election to the academy is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service.
Andres, interim chief of the UAMS Department of Pediatrics Section of Developmental Nutrition, and Thompson, president emeritus of the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, are the first sitting UAMS faculty members to be elected to the academy.
The academy said Andres was elected “for providing global leadership in defining how exposures during pregnancy and lactation affect maternal-child outcomes,” adding, “Her rigorously conducted randomized controlled trials of diet and lifestyle interventions in pregnant and lactating women have established causal relationships underlying pregnancy outcomes, milk composition and programming of metabolic health.”
Thompson was elected “for being a distinguished leader in public health research, practice and policy,” the academy said. It added, “As a former surgeon general of Arkansas, he pioneered the design, implementation and evaluation of new episode-based and primary care payment models that led the way for analogous federal models and leads health data integration in support of a continuously learning health system.”
“We are so pleased that Dr. Andres and Dr. Thompson have received one of the most prestigious distinctions in medicine, as it is a clear recognition of their expertise and the impact of their work to improve health in Arkansas and beyond,” said Steven Webber, M.D., executive vice chancellor of UAMS and dean of the College of Medicine. “Dr. Andres’ research into exposures, diet and other factors relating to maternal-child outcomes has been groundbreaking, and Dr. Thompson has provided remarkable leadership in public health and policy development.”
Each year, the academy membership elects 100 new members. This year, it elected 90 regular member and 10 international members.
Andres has served since 2021 as the associate director of the Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center, a USDA-Agricultural Research Service-funded center. She has headed the Section of Developmental Nutrition in the UAMS Department of Pediatrics since 2024. In April, she received the College of Medicine Excellence in Research Award.
Thompson has been with the UAMS College of Medicine Department of Pediatrics since 1998 and has been with the UAMS Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health since 2002. For 22 years, he served as president and CEO of ACHI, a nonpartisan health policy research center jointly operated by UAMS and the Arkansas Department of Health, and Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield. Earlier this year, he was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Network of Public Health Institutes.
While serving as Arkansas surgeon general under two governors — Mike Huckabee, a Republican, and Mike Beebe, a Democrat — he played an integral role in the development of many key health policies and programs in Arkansas. He continues to conduct leading research and data projects at ACHI.
Andres earned her doctoral degree in nutritional sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, after earning both a Master of Science degree in nutrition and a Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture from the Ecole Superieure d’Agriculture de Purpan in Toulouse, France. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center.
Thompson earned his medical degree from UAMS and his Master of Public Health degree from the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
UAMS is the state’s only health sciences university, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a main campus in Little Rock; a Northwest Arkansas regional campus in Fayetteville; a statewide network of regional campuses; and eight institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Psychiatric Research Institute, Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, Translational Research Institute, Institute for Digital Health & Innovation and the Institute for Community Health Innovation. UAMS includes UAMS Health, a statewide health system that encompasses all of UAMS’ clinical enterprise. UAMS is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 3,485 students, 915 medical residents and fellows, and seven dental residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 11,000 employees, including 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS, its regional campuses, Arkansas Children’s, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health. Visit www.uams.edu or uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube or Instagram.
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