Interests

Video production, documentary and sports production.

Biography

Jan Thompson, Associate Professor, is a 28-year broadcast veteran. She has produced over 300 television programs including long form documentaries across varied subject genres. Presently she is working on several documentary projects. The Tragedy of Bataan is a half-hour television documentary with a five-part radio companion series.

This entire project will be narrated by acclaimed actor Alec Baldwin and will debut nationally at the end of 2011. In addition, Thompson is finishing a feature length documentary entitled Never The Same: The Prisoner of War Experience.

She recently completed a High Definition documentary, Ties That Bind, that is currently in national syndication as 9/11 anniversary programming. In addition, she finished a series of multi-award winning prime time specials for PBS called Hidden- Journeys. All of these programs are being distributed by PBS Home Video and have been broadcast in international markets including Italy, Singapore, Canada, Hong Kong and on the Armed Forces Network. Before moving entirely into documentary work, Prof. Thompson was a producer-director in sports programming and was the studio director for the Chicago Bulls Basketball, Chicago White Sox, and Chicago Blackhawks. She also was the Promotions Producer for the Cleveland Calvaliers and Cleveland Indians. Thompson directed the very first live-call in sports talk show in Chicago. She has personally worked on television projects with several major national figures including, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld, Newton Minow, Michael Jordon, Reggie Jackson and conductor Daniel Barenboim. She has won national and international awards, including nine EMMY nominations across all areas of production and two EMMYS: Music Composition and Editing.

Courses

• RT 450 - Documentary Style Production