Marian Cecelia Johnson-Thompson (born December 9, 1946) is an American virologist who was a professor at the University of the District of Columbia.

[4] After retiring from University of the District of Columbia in 1994, Johnson-Thompson joined the National Institutes of Health as the director of education and biomedical research development at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS),[2][5] where she was responsible for clinical trials, including the Sister Study, which looked to understand the environmental causes of breast cancer.

She later attended Howard University, where she was advised by a Botanist Marie Clark Taylor and Biologist John Rear[14].

She organized Science discovery days events that were used to introduce minority students and women to STEM at an early age.

Some of her doctoral degree mentees include Ashalla Magee Freeman now director of Diversity Affairs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, office of Graduate Education; Kenneth Gibbs now program analyst at National Institute of General Medical Science, National Institute of Health (NIH).

Elena Braithwaite now Toxicologist at the FDA in Rockville, MD; Sherilynn Black now assistant professor at Duke University School of Medicine and Pocahontas Jones Ph.D. in Microbiology and immunology currently working at Halifax Community College [15].

In 1997, Dr. Johnson- Thompson established the Bridging Education Science and Technology program at Hillside High School in Durham, North Carolina.

The programs utilized equipment and scientists from the National Institutes of Environmental Health Science (NIEHS) to educate the students with hands-on molecular biology experiences[13].