Dr. Thornton is the Robert W. Day Endowed Professor of Public Health and Professor, Graduate Program Director, and Associate Chair of Education in Biostatistics at the University of Washington (UW) and an Affiliate Investigator at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Dr. Thornton's research involves the development and application of statistical methods for the analysis of large-scale genotyping and sequencing data for the identification of genetic variants that influence complex diseases and quantitative traits. Currently, Dr. Thornton's collaborative research has largely focused on using statistical methods to identify novel genetic variants for complex traits in ancestrally diverse populations, including underrepresented minority populations in the U.S., including African Americans, Latinos, and American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations.