Seven USF Alumni Who Are Making an Impact: Part One

As a top-tier research university, USF is a hub for innovation — the stomping grounds for trailblazers and changemakers. With 200+ programs to choose from, Bulls can make their mark in almost any field. But you don’t have to take our word for it! Our alumni are happy to tell you about how they’re changing the world.

In this first article, you can read profiles of these three USF alumni:

• Karim Hanna, Family Doctor: Putting the “Care” in Healthcare

• Janae Thomas, Lawyer: Challenging Injustice in the Legal System

• Alicia Thompson, Author: Creating Community Through Stories

Our second article describes the experiences of these four USF alumni:

• Gloria Muñoz, Writer: Inspiring Real-World Change Through YA Fiction
• Chris Fils, Wealth Manager: Guiding Clients to Prosperity
• Bailee Olliff, Surgeon: Advancing Trauma Surgery with Robotics
• Candace Braun Davison, Editor: Sparking Joy Through Journalism

Karim Hanna 

Job: Physician of family medicine; associate professor at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine; program director for USF-TGH Family Medicine Residency Program; the author of a book on end-of-life decision-making

Degrees: Bachelor of Science, Bio-Medical Sciences (USF); Doctor of Medicine (Morsani College of Medicine, USF)

Location: Tampa, FL

A Day in the Life of a Family Medicine Doctor

“I think I have the best job ever,” Karim Hanna says. “The reason is because there’s so much variety in my day and in my week.”

Half the week, he works as a family medicine doctor, caring for patients from “newborns all the way to the grave.” The rest of the time, he teaches students and residents, sees patients at Tampa General Hospital, and conducts research.

Hanna’s goal is to connect with patients on a deeply human level. Listening is key.

“I say the same two rules to every patient I meet. First, I tell them they are in charge, and my job is just to give them [evidence-based] suggestions,” Hanna says. “The second rule is that I want them to see me as part of their family, so they can disagree with me; they can yell and shout and scream; they can cry, they can vent.”

He was inspired to be a true family doctor during medical school, when he noticed his mentor’s desk overflowed with holiday gifts from patients. “This man is part of their family,” Hanna says he realized. “He takes care of the parents, the kids, the grandkids, the neighbors, the friends, and he’s entrenched in the community.”

Becoming a Doctor  

Hanna planned on becoming a computer engineer, but he switched paths after a humanitarian mission trip to Bolivia, when he saw the profound impact a good doctor can have.

This impact goes beyond the physical, Hanna learned during medical school at USF. He still vividly remembers when he and his attending physician visited a dying patient. The patient was beyond medicine, so Hanna’s attending physician asked how they could help on a human level.

The patient said, “I’d really love some watermelon.”

The next morning, at the advice of his attending, Hanna picked up an enormous watermelon. He wandered the hospital in his white coat, cradling the melon, until the cafeteria agreed to slice it for him. When he delivered it to the patient’s room in an industrial-size Ziplock bag, the tears “just flowed.”

“It was such a powerful thing where we knew he couldn’t eat, but he could at least suck on the flavor of the watermelon,” Hanna remembers. “We were not doing medicine … We were bringing healing.”

Making an Impact in Medicine

Hanna advises students not to pursue medicine for the wrong reasons: If you become a doctor for the prestige or the paycheck, you’ll burn out.

“Be a human being that is looking to connect with people,” he says. “That’s what will make you the doctor that you should be.”

Hanna credits USF for helping him continuously grow, both as a physician and a teacher. “USF has allowed me, if I’m a seed, to be fertilized and watered.”

In his commencement speech to the USF Morsani College of Medicine Class of 2020, Hanna reminded students to be the kind of physician they always dreamed of being: selfless, honest, and a servant to their patients.

Taking Time for Self-Care

Hanna is an optimist. “I tell patients, if you’re ever lacking hope, I’ve got bags of it, and I give it out for free,” he says. “As a clinician, we have to … give patients a potential for healing in their mind.”

Hanna says he and his wife often remind themselves, “This is the best day ever, because it’s the one we’ve got.” He starts each day at 4:45 a.m., giving himself time to pray, reflect, read, and exercise. At the end of the workday, he recharges by connecting with his family.

A musical crew, the Hannas have 13 instruments, including an accordion, a harmonica, drums, a piano, and the oud, a type of lute. When he gets home after a long shift, his three kids — all under age five — like to hop on his back and pretend he’s a donkey. “Your kids don’t care what title you have at work. Your kids just want to hang out with you and have a good time.”

Janae Thomas

Job: Associate lawyer at Quintairos Prieto Wood & Boyer, the largest woman- and minority-owned firm in the U.S.

Degrees: Bachelor of Science, Finance, Real Estate, and Insurance (Florida State University); Juris Doctor, (University of Florida); Master of Public Administration (USF); Master of Business Administration (University of Florida); Doctor of Philosophy, Politics and International Affairs (USF).

Location: Tampa, FL

A Day in the Life of a Lawyer

“The beauty of having a law degree is that it allows you to focus on the things you are passionate about,” Janae Thomas says.

By day, she’s a corporate defense lawyer. In the evenings and on weekends, she pursues her passion: writing about the criminal justice system. She also appears on TV as a legal analyst for ABC News and true crime shows.

“Every day looks different,” she says. She works from home with ten dogs — nine poodles and doodles and one grumpy elderly Chihuahua who glowers from his corner. Although she already has a PhD, an MBA, and an MPA, she’s thinking about getting a nursing degree to gain a deeper understanding of the nursing home staff she represents.

“You can be a lifelong learner,” she says.

Becoming a Lawyer

Thomas didn’t always plan on becoming a lawyer. As a kid, she was determined not to follow in the footsteps of her mother, a judge. She planned to be a vet until a high school internship made her think twice.

“Don’t be scared to pivot,” she advises. “If something doesn’t work out, I don’t try to force it.” Changing her path felt scary, but she realized “you can always make a difference in whatever you do.”

In law school, she promised herself she’d never work in the criminal justice system. But her first postgrad job was exactly that: prosecuting for the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit of Florida. She fell in love with it during her second case, when she realized she could help people find justice.

Over seven years, she led more than 50 jury trials to verdict and was voted “Government Attorney of the Year” in 2020 by the Hillsborough County Bar Association.

Making a Difference in Criminal Law

Thomas now works in the private sector but writes about the impact of “stand your ground” laws on the criminal justice system.

“When I was a prosecutor, ‘stand your ground’ laws were just being refined,” she says. “I felt like there was a lot of injustice.”

“Stand your ground” laws protect individuals who use force against someone else if they claim they felt an imminent threat. “There is currently much debate over whether these laws are fair or give individuals a right to murder and still be covered under the law,” Thomas explains in her PhD dissertation.

She earned her PhD in politics and international affairs from USF, where she focused on the history of these laws and how they are applied in Florida versus other states.

One of her USF professors advised his students that they should always reach out to an author they admire, because you never know where that connection can lead. Thomas took his advice to heart and emailed Caroline Light, who wrote one of the first books on “stand your ground.”

“Let me come to Harvard and buy you a coffee,” Thomas emailed her.

Light agreed. The two of them have been writing together for publications like Slate and The Washington Post ever since.

Taking Time for Self-Care

Time management is Thomas’s superpower. “Take it one day at a time. If life gets too intimidating and overwhelming, focus on what you have to do today,” she says. “If today is too overwhelming, focus on … the next task.”

She makes sure to budget time for herself, too. “I work on weekends, but not on Saturdays. That’s nonnegotiable.”

Every night after work, she puts her nine tiny dogs — minus Grandpa Chihuahua, who stays home — in a stroller and they grab something to eat or go on a mini field trip. “We’re frequent flyers in PetSmart or Petco.”

Relationships with friends and family also sustain her: “I read a study recently that said the happiest people in the world are people who have meaningful connections,” she says. “Find your tribe and make sure you prioritize that.”

Alicia Thompson

Job: Full-time author

Degrees: Bachelor of Arts, Psychology and History (New College of Florida); Master of Fine Arts, Creative Writing (USF)

Location: Central Florida

A Day in the Life of an Author

Alicia Thompson writes the books she wants to read. It’s the coolest part about being an author: “This story, that is like a perfect book for me, exists in the world, and it exists because I wrote it.”

It turns out a lot of other people want to read her books, too: Thompson is a USA Today-bestseller. Her most recent book, In Every Possible Way (June 2026), is about a woman who hits her head, wakes up in Ireland, and embarks on a whimsical, whirlwind romance.

A full-time author since 2023, Thompson writes every morning to make sure she meets her deadlines. In the afternoon, she markets her upcoming work, prepares for literary events, and reads other authors' books so she can write “blurbs” (endorsements).

Becoming an Author

As a kid, Thompson loved gothic novels like Wuthering Heights. She imagined herself as an orphan, writing by candlelight in a cold garret. In reality, she was “in a suburban Florida house with overhead fan lighting,” listening to her parents discuss their egg-salad dinner. The vibes were not right.

Then she found The Shawl: itchy, musky, and definitely giving “garret.”

“I was like, ‘Oh, every time I write, I’m going to put on my little writing shawl and just pretend that’s the vibe,’” Thompson remembers. “It was actually pretty uncomfortable.”

She abandoned the writing shawl, but not her aspirations.

As a teenager, she submitted several manuscripts to Harlequin Romance. “It was funny because, at that time, I had no romantic experience to speak of,” she says. Still, she got closer to publication each time.

Thompson released her debut young adult novel in 2009 and published a children’s series with a gymnast. Then, for about six years, she couldn’t get anything else published. She stayed resilient by reminding herself why she was doing this: She loved writing, not just publishing. “You have to love stories and characters and wanting to create your own world,” she says.

Attending USF’s Creative Writing MFA helped her build a community of fellow authors. “There are people from that program that I’m still friends with to this day,” she says.

She saved every penny she could from her paralegal job in hopes of becoming a full-time author someday.

In 2022, her romance novel Love in the Time of Serial Killers was published to huge acclaim: Cosmopolitan ranked it one of the Best Romance Novels Ever. Since then, she’s published three more novels, including The Art of Catching Feelings — an instant bestseller.

Making an Impact as an Author

As a romance writer, Thompson hopes readers “take some comfort in knowing that you can be deeply weird and still find someone who happens to like your brand of weird,” she says in a Writer’s Digest interview.

Writing a “happily ever after” (HEA) ending can be a challenge, she explains in a WUSF interview, because “sometimes I think it’s easier to be bleak than it is to be joyful.” But these endings give readers a reason to be hopeful in a sometimes-dark world. Her characters, who come from all walks of life, embrace not only who they love, but who they are. This is their true HEA.

She advises aspiring writers to be open-minded. “Be constantly curious and observant and compassionate and empathetic … all these things will make you a better writer, because you’re so open to everything that you’re experiencing around you.”

Taking Time for Self-Care

When she’s not writing, Thompson likes to bike, read, listen to Paramore, and spend time with her husband, two kids, and two cats, Luna and Pickles.

She finds hope through connecting with others. “Community and connection. … are two of the most important things to a human life. I’ve gotten a lot of both from expressing myself through my stories, being in conversation with other authors and artists, and meeting people who love books and romance as much as I do.”

Start Your Journey at USF

Now that you’ve seen how USF alumni are making an impact, you can check out what our current USF students are up to: Watch our Day-in-the-Life playlist here.

Curious how USF can help you make your mark? Don’t hesitate to reach out to us online, or give us a call at (813) 974-3350.

Ready to become a Bull? We welcome your application!