2026 Participant Biographies

James P. Thomas, M.D. is a laryngologist and phonosurgeon based in Portland, Oregon, where he has led a specialized voice and laryngology practice since 1999. Growing up in Michigan and Pennsylvania as the son of an anesthesiologist, he earned his B.S. in Biology (with distinction) and M.D. from Pennsylvania State University, completed residency training in otolaryngology at Southern Illinois University, and undertook a fellowship in professional voice disorders under the mentorship of Robert W. Bastian, M.D. at Loyola University, Chicago.

A passionate educator, Dr. Thomas has served as director of a postgraduate fellowship in laryngology since 2002 and continues to offer preceptorships to medical students at Oregon Health Sciences University. Physicians, speech-language pathologists, and voice teachers from across the globe travel to Portland to study with him, and he lectures internationally, bringing his surgical and diagnostic expertise to phoniatrists, otolaryngologists, and phonosurgeons worldwide.

Dr. Thomas is a pioneering figure in feminization laryngoplasty—surgical voice modification for transgender patients—and has contributed extensively to the literature on visual neurolaryngology, diagnosis by listening, high-definition laryngology, and nanomargin tumor surgery. He is board-certified by the American Board of Otolaryngology, a member of the European Laryngology Society, and serves as a peer reviewer for the Laryngoscope, Journal of Voice, and Annals of Otology, Rhinology & Laryngology.

He is the author of Why Is There a Frog in My Throat? A Guide to Hoarseness and produces the educational video series “VoxDoc, the voicedoctor” on YouTube. Further information is available at voicedoctor.net.

SPECIAL INTERESTS
Feminization laryngoplasty (transgender voice surgery) · Visual neurolaryngology · Diagnosis by listening · High-definition laryngology · Nanomargin tumor surgery