Deanna Thompson

Retired professor of religion

Deanna Thompson was the founding director of the new Lutheran Center for Faith, Values, and Community and Martin E. Marty Regents Chair in Religion and the Academy at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, before her retirement in 2025. Prior to that she served as a professor of religion at the College of Liberal Arts at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn. She is the author of “Crossing the Divide: Luther, Feminism, and the Cross,” the memoir of her experience with cancer, “Hoping for More: Having Cancer, Talking Faith, and Accepting Grace,” and "The Virtual Body of Christ in a Suffering World."