Rachel Thompson is an assistant professor-in-residence in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of California Los Angeles. She completed a residency in orthopaedic surgery at Northwestern University and fellowships in pediatric orthopaedics and neuromuscular orthopaedics at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children and A.I. duPont Hospital for Children, respectively. She currently serves as the Director for the Center for Cerebral Palsy at UCLA/Orthopaedic Institute for Children and holds the William and Patricia Oppenheim Presidential Chair in Pediatric Orthopaedics at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. She is the Associate Program Director for the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Davi Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Her current research is primarily in the muscular pathology associated with spastic cerebral palsy and pain control and anxiety in patients with cerebral palsy undergoing surgery.