CAROL J. HINKLEY THOMPSON

Writer ◊ Consultant ◊ Speaker

Please note, this "an the undocumented bio (Carol Thompson)"

until it can be edited, its here for you to gasp. Her assistant)

To Contact Me

LORAC Publications, Inc.

(&/or Puddintaine Publications, children’s literature)

3709 19th Street, #291

Lubbock, Texas 79410

writer1_edit2@windstream.net

Member:

American Medical Writers Association

Cassell Network of Writers

Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators

Who’s Who, current listings: Finance and Industry, American Women, Women in the Southwest, Women In American, International Who’s Who, Outstanding Women of the 21st. Century.

Press Pass. Published author.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

The founder and owner of LORAC is a published writer including a book published in 1978 (now under re-vision), with a background writing a newspaper column, lay and medical articles, investigative journalism, and web sites. A motivational speaker nominated to the International Platform Society by Jack Anderson, her education was in medicine, cellular biology, and the history of science.

Her career includes sixteen years in obstetrics, including peri-natal and parenting education, Action for Children’s Television as Southwest Regional Coordinator, the American Society for Psychoprophylaxis in Obstetrics (ASPO), as Southwest Regional Director and on ASPO’s national board, non-profit management expertise in social services, the arts, medicine, and higher education. As a consultant for over twenty-five years, she is looking forward to devoting her retirement years to her love for writing “since I have a wealth of experience to write about now.”

With pleading, Thompson will advise non-government organizations on board development & training, the strategic planning progressives ("The word 'retreat' in this context is an oxymoron!"), which includes the implementation plans, institutional readiness for fund raising, incorporating foundations and nonprofits, donor stewardship, coalition-building and her unique concept in high-level volunteering—Fluid Leadership! ™ for non-profits to meet their quantified objectives.

"Fundraising - if ethical and planned - is entirely possible, as long as it starts at the top." This proves that philanthropy and donor stewardship may be accomplished, and must be, to function as a funded corporation of the public trust. With the strategies she has developed for LORAC, nonprofits may run smoothly, and enjoy high-level leadership, enriched by experts in the different fields all corporations must possess to be successful.

"A nonprofit organization must be held to the same standards of a for-profit corporation. This is a larger sector than the for-profit. Without an excellent, knowledgeable board of trustees, a nonprofit cannot exist. It violates the rational for charitable tax exemption, and the public trust."

With that philosophy, Thompson moved LORAC into the new millennium. Her associates were capable of addressing internet communication, web site design,  marketing and communications; identifying community collaborative potentials, meeting planning, special events, program development, and ethics in philanthropy. "All business disciplines must be available to counsel nonprofit board trustees, their executive, and their philanthropic community in order for the sector to move into the forefront it was originally mandated for: serving the public trust."

Under her direction, LORAC Publications, Inc, although not a non-profit, also adheres to The Standards of Ethical Conduct, as endorsed by Independent Sector, Council on Foundations, and the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy and the writers associations in which she holds membership. Thompson has spend considerable time studying the writing market, current copywrite law, enlarging her network of colleagues, writers associations, and “just ramping up for my great desire to continue my earlier writing,” which includes the history of science and amazingly quick turn-around brochures, letters, reviewing grant applications, and at least two more books.

Acquiring the best associates for a client's needs was part of her leadership stance. Thompson has been described by her colleagues as, “highly ethical...creative. . .resourceful . . .productive.” Staff meetings were often via Internet (long before Internet meetings began) or when called together meetings were "in a grueling manner with all of us standing and a defined time limit." Then, they all prepared a meal ". . .because we could all relax and have fun.” She respects other's ability, creativity, space, and never hesitates to seek a colleague's assistance in order to serve, remain ethical and humane.”

Not quite her philanthropic beginnings, in Boston she labored for two years to stop the 3rd and 4th class mailing of dangerous articles, which were harmful to children. “Especially in multi-family dwellings, unsolicited toxic substances were dropped through door mail slots, or left on the steps in piles where children found and ingested samples sent through the U.S. Postal Service. Children were injured by strong detergents, razor blades, and drug samples--they could easily remove the caps from medicine containers and toxic household products.” The publicity often referred to her as a child-advocate long before the term was common. Her Idealism about Democracy marked her way through the process in Washington, D.C.

In spite of expecting her third child in three years, and put on bed rest, she credits Representative Thomas ("Tip") P. O'Neill, President Lyndon Baines Johnson, and the U.S. Proprietary Association with her success, even though the effort was a solo one, and an amazing accomplishment. As a mother, such missions as The Child Safety Act, 1966, had to be become law.

After graduate school her family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma where she worked with Betsy Howowitz ( a physician's wife) to stop a highway from cutting through the area they lived--Maple Ridge, a historic area, they found out that the founder of Amerada Petroleum had built their home. Thompson was restoring it when she had to take a stand against part of the neighborhood destroyed for a highway. So, standing in front of bulldozers with their babies in strollers and backpacks, and calling the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Mr. John Volpe (whom she knew through the current Administration from her work on her Bill) to Tulsa: "Of course we won. Now Tulsa has a lovely river walk, and historic district. That city owes us their gratitude. One would have thought we were fighting the Battle of the Bulge back then!"

During that time, Thompson also brought family-centered maternity and childcare to Oklahoma! One physician in Tulsa gave his support:   Joseph Keuchel, D.O. who recently commented on the first such birth in Oklahoma: "I was in hot water with my administrator! The press covered it, and I still have the pages framed in my office (1999)." 

She went on to the University of Oklahoma at the request of Dean Merrill, and Dr. Crosby, who were interested in this concept of care, and building their new hospital. In fact, Thompson was able to show them about husband-assisted natural childbirth with the birth of their fourth child--however natural it was, the birth room was filled with physicians--a rare benefit.

Her dedication to community is evidenced by her pro-bono involvement and advising. During many years of dedication to maternal-child health she is a pioneer in the family-centered maternity and childcare movement, and began formally raising funds for preventive health programs. In Dallas, Texas her vision created The Family Life Information Centre, Inc., opening out-reach clinics beginning in 1973, which included job training facilities to make it easier for parents to participate in job training or federal surveys (through Office of Industrialization Services) and receive their peri-natal education, care and preparation for parenting and self-esteem.

Several obstetricians and pediatricians highly supported her efforts and her writing career expanded during that time. Resident physicians from Parkland Hospital supported her efforts, and she was a lecturer at the UTSW Medical School for the senior students on the normal physiology of pregnancy and birth. "Others didn't support me at all," she commented. Her work brought Burton White, PhD from Harvard to study the "Centre" and he returned to Massachusetts and established a nearly identical program (Thompson had worked in the Harvard Pre-School Project under Dr. White in Cambridge during her college and new motherhood years). She considered his replications an honor.

A futurist, and intellectual who taught in the early 1970s that, "the earth provides good nutrients, but our expectant mothers are deficient in folic acid, especially if they were on "the pill," they had a higher rate of loss of the first pregnancy (she was severely admonished by many obstetricians and gynecologists). And, mothers’ milk, with the longest clinical trial in history, must be seriously considered, or mothers and their babies will face physiological problems later on in life."

During that decade, she also took on mental health funding, and care ("Its the same today in Texas....no more money for aid or prevention!"), the Toy Manufacturers Association for their dangerous toys (the weaving rods in pot holder kits, darts, cap shooting 'guns,' etc), and appeared on many morning TV interviews.

The Dallas mayor told her in the late 1970s, “You're twenty years ahead of time." Well then listen to me, she told him, we're going to have our prisons overflowing by 1990, if you don't. Her friend, Annette Strauss (who lost a swift battle with cancer in 1998), became mayor of Dallas in the early 1990s, and always encouraged her.

She recalls the days of early motherhood in Cambridge, Mass., "When only one pediatrician didn't tell us we were starving or poisoning our babies--and it isn't the one who's so famous now--women taught HIM by leaving and going to Dr. Bob Ritchie, who was so kind."

Thompson established the first Breast Milk Bank for ill and premature infants in 1977. Recalling her 'nursing school' days, when she always won the Volunteer of the Year award, her leadership turned back to recruit the America Red Cross to transport the contributions from nursing mothers to the hospitals in Dallas, Texas. She churned out articles and letters for newspapers to educate the community without hesitation.

By 1999, on the daily TV news we hear of the importance of folic acid for women during pregnancy, and at Lund University in Sweden, Dr. Catharina Svanborg has publish a study which "runs the risk of challenging current dogma--a brick wall of people who have tunnel vision (David Saloman, National Cancer Institute)." Nonetheless, her work has been collaborated by the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and Oxford University in England, and the National Cancer Institute. A new protein named: HAMLET for Human Alpha-lactalbumin Made LE to Tumor cells, had been discovered by Svanborg’s researchers, that this ordinary component in human breast milk compels cancer cells--every type of cancer cell tested - to die (New York Times, 9/99)."

Her book, *Childbirth Today: Prepared & Positive, was published in 1978, first under contract to Harper & Row. When the marketing department of H & R presented her with a compromise in ethics, the State of Texas stepped in to publish the book. She has attended over 2000 births, at no extra charge to her “mothers” and there was NO panting, just relaxation, hard work, and love. Over 86% of those mothers breastfed their infants at least 12 months, working or not, and they had a six-hour hands on class on infant and childcare before their babies were born. Each mother or couple received support during labor and home visits at no extra charge.

During this time, Thompson was serving on the Mental Health Child Abuse Committee. She designed an observation technique to determine the degree that a woman bonded with her infant at birth. "When a certain score was reached, staff or volunteers could step in to help the mother, and her family, in their parenting roles.” The secret--giving the mother the love and affirmation she lacked somewhere along the line in her own life.

In the early 1980s, Carol was the sole reason that the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District in Texas removed asbestos from the school classrooms. "I was the only parent for months who protested to the school board, and wrote articles based on the health department’s studies and the EPA’s findings on the long term effects of friable asbestos. The State Health Department figures became branded into my brain, and I could not permit the school board's negligence to go on. We had children in the schools, but not one parent joined me--however, teachers phoned frequently thanking me for my efforts. It finally took me adding a codicil to my Will, holding the Board and all of their heirs responsible if one child, or their heirs, suffered from asbestos poisoning, ad infinitium.

Her most recent mission has been the early detection and accurate diagnosis of breast cancer. During her own experience, she fought diligently for The Breast & Cervical Cancer Treatment Act, 1999, so that no one would go without treatment, uninsured, or underinsured.

At the time of her second mastectomy, she made the public aware of the important role the National Institutes of Health plays in offering services to citizens, philanthropic and investment support for technology to identify cancer cells. Due to her many articles and extensive contacts, the "Star Wars" scanner being tested for FDA approval had trial sites in Austin and Dallas, Texas. Lockheed Martin in Dallas brought to this technology to her attention ("They can tell you the rest - thank God for my computer."). The skin and bone trials were nearly completed but none had been in Texas. Therefore, she invited the president and CEO of OmniCorder Technology, Inc., New York, to Austin to present the technology to physicians and radiological professionals--to 'sell' him on Texas for inclusion in the breast trial sites. On December 23, 1999, the FDA gave OmniCorder its initial approval. In January, the GE Digital Mammography was approved and the Chairman of GE invited her to New York for the public unveiling and TV coverage.

Her expertise was that she identified a paradigm shift in medical care with the patient selecting his or her team of physicians, and being an equal member of the team. Advocacy for those needing assertiveness to establish his or her team had to be presented through graphics and the written word. Thompson authored two web sites to encourage health care activism. Ironically, this occurred while coping with treatments and the emotional aspects of breast cancer herself, but gave her a greater empathy for patients, and her or his loved ones.

For five years during her own treatments, often with both arms receiving IVs, her online e-groups kept individuals up to date on new information being published and the results of trials, in a closed, non-commercial forum without obscenity, that so many of the newsgroups contend with. Her answer? "Mother Teresa did it, and she said 'God is the friend of silence. Trees, flowers, grass grow in silence. See the stars, moon, and sun how they move in silence.' This shall be done, and available throughout our world." Hinkley Thompson also served the newly established Center for Community-Based and Nonprofit Organizations, Austin Community College District's Advisory Council.

Hinkley Thompson served on the writers committee for Self Magazine’s breast cancer insert (“It was totally destroyed by the corporate advertising editors”), and Time’s “Re-Thinking Breast Cancer, February 2001

Thompson is included in past and current editions of Who's Who In The World, Silver Edition, Who's Who in the South and Southwest past & Millennium Editions, International Who's Who Among Women, Who's Who in America 2001, Who's Who of American Women 2000-2001, Who's Who in Industry and Finance, Who's Who In The New Millennium, and Great Women Leaders in 21st. Century. She is a Leadership Dallas alumna. A unique individual, two of Thompson's fondest accomplishments are simple: establishing The Al Singletary Endowed Financial Aid Grant for Minority Students at UNT, Denton, Texas, and having the Minority Students Association award her Outstanding Achiever of the Year, two years later ("I even rode in their convertible during the Homecoming Parade! What fun."). Those were the only awards this leader has accepted.

What is fun for this woman? First, don't tell her something can't be done. She can write books on her life experiences from Michigan to Spain, to Paris alone) and the politics involved in saving the older homes in Tulsa, and Dallas, Texas’s first philanthropists. If asked she says, "It is primarily music and water," such as walking on a seashore where I can see for miles, or "sitting in a box at the Myerson Symphony Center or Carnegie Hall, with someone who is equally paralyzed by a performance and, being with someone where words are unnecessary. Loved ones, dear friends, people I respect I find I love, too. Maybe they know who they are, was her response.

She earned her private pilot's license in 1980 ". . . attempting to combat a terrible fear of heights due to a childhood of extensive child abuse, "and I still want to maintain a historical site such as the Carrie Nation home, and learn a sport like deep sea fishing for my old age."

Thompson states that she has never known the term pride. . .”joy for others or feeling comfortable about others lives and safety, yes, but I never feel what so many refer to as pride. My friends, donors I’ve worked with, colleagues, and my family bring me joy. They are just the greatest individuals and friends one could ever know. The caring physicians I have on my team all during my experience with thyroid and breast cancer, I did not know such people could exist, especially in my life, so personally caring, competent, and giving. I spent weeks finding them, and 'firing' just as many for a lack of intellectual honesty, curiosity, and common sense. Many lack sufficient basic sciences."

A high school classmate recently recalled the days when she would contact performers and ask them to perform to help her raise funds so youth groups could build coalitions, and build their treasuries! He recalled attending a party at Harry Belafonte's home, with her, shocked that they expected her!  He asked her, "What are you doing, these days?" "Well, you won't believe it, but..." she responded. Thompson's avocation is writing, public speaking, and teaching adaptive aquatic therapy—she holds accreditation by the Arthritis Foundation. It is not surprising to find her in some obscure location teaching "chair" exercises to people who have never given exercise a thought, and "before you know it she has them eating greens."

Ironically, fate has played an incredible role in the life of this writer. Now devoting her life to writing and speaking, she spent several years creating a lovely garden of native plants, while she adjusted to an eye condition of gradual loss of central vision (juvenile macular degeneration), and her battle to survive Polio as a small child, revisited her in the past years, becoming an increasing challenge. In one year, she had to accept learning to use a white, red-tipped cane at times, then after returning to leg braces and crutches she had to begin using a motorized wheelchair to save motor neurons, and prevent falls from post-polio syndrome. “I guess there will be no seashore walks for me, or seeing for miles, but I’ve been blessed with a great deal to write about, and the ability to put myself in others lives and fight for them through the written word, and now my garden is going to be all right without my constant hovering. That’s good.”

Few people realized that juvenile macular degeneration "hit" her in 2001, after being diagnosed in 1978 and told she would not have any central vision within five years. Her healthy diet of antioxidants and taking the vitamin Ocuvite as the retinologists told her to do did keep the vision at 'bay' until she moved to the South Plains of Texas where the amount of blue light is treacherous for anyone's retinas. In 2004, Carol discovered that the 1981 Baylor Hospital diagnosis of Post-Polio Syndrome had actually progressed to the point that it was time for her to see one of the nation's top experts, Dr. Richard Bruno, Director of the Post-Polio Institute. This news completely changed her lifestyle, "especially my organic, native gardening, and quick runs here and there and daily swimming...”but I can still teach others through my writing—nothing will stop me from doing that except for my own health--it must come first!” Between this and my loss of vision, I now have "enhanced abilities, not disabilities" © 2004—thanks to the Texas Commission for the Blind, and Dr. Bruno."

Utilizing her vast experiences all over the world in philanthropic consulting, Carol has not given up. LORAC Publications will now be distributing her philosophies and experiences, as she is determined to move forward more casually, back into her writing career. With all of the experience this woman has accumulated, finding a mentor was her first step in her “ramp up” plan to build LORAC Publications, Inc.

Ms. Thompson is founder & founding board chair of PROJECT! OUTREACH: Early care, Education, Screening & Advocacy, Inc. Intl. (a 501c3). She resigned in 2005 “because all of our initial goals were met, and our vice-chairman, William C. Dooley, MD, the nation’s top oncology surgeon, was doing an incredible job of providing free breast cancer screening to all women. The organization must now take on its own personality.”

The non-profit’s vision is “Eradicate Cancer” and Mission: Screening, detection and treatment facilitating early diagnosis for everyone regardless of financial resources. Thompson designed "The PROJECT" to become an international professional and volunteer opportunity. In less than two weeks, four cities contacted her to establish satellites to carry out the mission and goals. The organization is now growing under the leadership of the nation's top surgical oncologist, who most likely regrets the day Thompson talked him into "serving on the Board." 

The PROJECT has lifted off, people will know to be screened early for cancer, they will have an advocate if they need one, and the funds. Her work agrees with that of the Associate Chief of Oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Clifford Hudis, MD: "There is no such term as "in remission" with breast cancer.” As Thompson speaks to audiences or in interviews regarding her breast cancer work she reminds everyone that breast cancer is multi-centric by definition, and there are no objective, clinical analyses to prove it is gone—in fact, the first "hit" appears to begin in puberty! What must be determined is what breaks down our DNA, the ultimate cause of all malignancies." Thompson is adamant that the truth has to come first at all times. "Imagine, in this nation, people going undiagnosed especially with breast, uterine and ovarian cancer because they don't have the money and don’t know how to communicate with the medical establishment expected to protect and save lives"

Presently, Hinkley Thompson is changing the mindset regarding sexual predators, writing and speaking before groups of parents, and advocates, in a effort to impress upon them that children do not grasp abstracts, "The good touch, bad touch program is insufficient. We are a sensual, loving species, and predators know precisely what to do to ensnare their victims--including young women who will become pregnant by these monsters, including clergy and religious organizations employees, because they trust them. Not so! Its time we were honest and regarded those we are to protect as our lifetime mandate, and tell them what they truly need to know, including teens."

Biographical Information credit: Originally by Douglas Lawson, Philanthropy Consultant

Copyright 2005: Carol J. Thompson. All rights reserved. You may republish under the following conditions: An active link to this publication must be provided. You must not alter, edit, or remove any text within the article, including this copyright notice.

August 2, 2005