Prior to joining Columbia University in 1993, she was an associate editor in the New York bureau of U.S. News & World Report, where she covered business, finance and the economy for five years.
In 1981, she joined BusinessWeek in New York as staff editor of the corporate finance section.
She joined Institutional Investor in 1987 as a senior editor responsible for editorial theme and annual supplements.
Thompson is the author of Biz Kids' Guide to Success: Money-Making Ideas for Young Entrepreneurs (Barrons, 1992) and editor of Writing About Business: The New Columbia Knight-Bagehot Guide to Economics and Business Journalism (Columbia University Press, 2001).
A former president of the New York Financial Writers' Association, Thompson is the recipient of numerous journalism awards, including the NYFWA's Elliott V. Bell award for making a significant, long-term contribution to the profession of financial journalism.