Meet the Citizens of the Year
“It’s often very easy to see what’s right in front of you and to make a difference in the space where you currently live,” says Dr. Alexis A. Thompson. “But if we’re able and willing to step out just a little bit and to see that we are global citizens, that we have the possibilities of having an impact in our lifetime around the world, perhaps in the lives of [those] we’ll never meet — to be daring enough and bold enough to actually think that we can do that is a real privilege.”
Thompson, MD, PhD, is Chief of the Division of Hematology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). And she embodies exactly the kind of boldness she describes: She and her colleague Dr. Stephan A. Grupp, MD, PhD — Director of the Susan S. and Stephen P. Kelly Center for Cancer Immunotherapy, Section Chief of the Cellular Therapy and Transplant Section, and Medical Director of the Cell and Gene Therapy Laboratory at CHOP — are this year’s Disruptors of the Year, two winners of our annual Citizen of the Year Awards. They’re being named disruptors for their trailblazing contributions to the treatment of Sickle Cell Disease, the genetic condition that disproportionately affects children of African descent.
That same spirit of boldness unites the winners of this year’s Citizen of the Year Awards, 10 phenomenal Philadelphians in fields ranging from medicine to music. They are leaders whose sense of service guides them, and whose commitment to seeing possibilities offers a blueprint for us all.