Lilli Thompson

Lilli Thompson, PT, DPT, NCS, is the Director of the Physical Therapy Department and Chief of the Rehabilitation Therapy Division at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center. She graduated from the University of Virginia with a Bachelor of Science in Sports Medicine and Education and earned her Physical Therapy degree from the Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University. She earned her Doctorate in Physical Therapy at Chapman University in California. She started her physical therapy career in 1988 at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center (RLANRC) and was a treating clinician on the spinal cord injury, pediatric, spine deformity, neurology and adult brain injury services. In addition, Dr. Thompson gained many years of experience in the private health care sector working in home health, acute care and community wellness education. At RLANRC, Dr. Thompson participated in multiple federally funded research grants investigating the functional, medical, and psychosocial changes associated with aging with a disability and was the Training Director for the National Institute for Disability Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) funded research project on Aging with Spinal Cord Injury. She has multiple publications, and has engaged in numerous national and international presentations on the topics of aging and disability. Dr. Thompson returned to clinical services as a clinical manager of the inpatient rehabilitation programs at RLANRC before becoming Chief of the Physical Therapy Department and Chief of the Rehabilitation Therapy Division. Dr. Thompson is an Executive Board and faculty member for development and delivery of a PT Neurologic Residency program at RLANRC in collaboration with USC Biokiniesiology Division. In addition she has helped create the first PT Neurologic Professional Education NeuroConsortium to provide extensive post-professional neurologic education to Physical Therapists. Dr. Thompson is a board certified specialist in neurologic physical therapy and earned a specialist certification as an assistive technology practitioner. She has also served as an adjunct faculty member for the University of Southern California’s Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy program’s class in Evidence Based Practice: Patient Perspectives and Evidence Integration. She currently is an adjunct faculty member of the Chapman University division of Physical Therapy teaching the Motor Learning and Motor Control lab series. She is an advisory board member of The Ride Your Horse Therapeutic Riding program in Cerritos CA. She serves as a member of the RLANRC Bioethics committee, the RLANRC Don Knabe Wellness Center executive advisory board, the Rancho Research Institute’s Internal Review Board (IRB) [ad hoc], and the Administrative Executive Staff at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center.