Lisa Thompson

Biography

Lisa Thompson is an exhibit developer at the Natural History Museum of Utah (NHMU). During her 30 years working in cultural organization in Utah, Lisa has focused on building relationships and cultivating mutually beneficial partnerships across the state through projects that forefront community voices and interests. She is passionate about helping people connect to nature in their communities. She launched NHMU’s citizen science program and led content development for Nature All Around Us, an exhibit that explores cities and nature as inseparable parts of interconnected systems. Building on research for the exhibit, she wrote Wild Wasatch Front, a guide to urban nature in northern Utah. Lisa also led content development for A Climate of Hope, an innovative climate change exhibit at NHMU that employs researched-based communication frames to inspire rational hope and foster productive dialogue around shared values. Lisa was also co-PI on a project conducting in-depth visitor research on the learning strategies in A Climate of Hope to build generalizable knowledge that can be applied across the museum field. She collaborates on climate communication efforts with a variety of partners, including organizations focused on public health and capacity building in underserved communities.