Dr. Thornton completed her medical degree at Marshall University in Huntington, West  Virginia. She completed her residency at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in  Internal Medicine. She then completed her fellowship training with the Division of Infectious Diseases at Indiana University Purdue University (IUPUI) where she studied the pathogenesis of chancroid. She was recruited to assist in the development of an infectious diseases fellowship program at the University of Kentucky in 1998. Dr. Thornton has successfully acquired four HRSA funded grants – Ryan White Part B, C and D and the Local Performance Site grant of the Southeast AIDS Education and Training Center. She is the Bluegrass Care Clinic site PI for the NIH-funded REPRIEVE Study – Randomized Clinical Trial to Prevent Vascular Events in HIV. Dr. Thornton is a clinical site visitor for Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), and also serves as a grant reviewer for HRSA, National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dr. Thornton is on the Ryan White Medical Providers Coalition Steering Committee and has served on the HIVMA Board of Directors. She is a Professor of Medicine in the University of Kentucky Department of Internal Medicine and Chief of the UK Division of Infectious Diseases.