Thomas is the director of child advocacy for the University of Michigan C. S. Mott Children's Hospital, as well as the director of the community benefit and community health needs assessment for the University of Michigan Health System. She promotes and protects people's health and the communities where they live, learn, work and play. Over the years she has held a variety of jobs including teaching theatre and dance to middle schoolers, painting murals for nonprofits, and working at a shelter/rehabilitation center for homeless women with mental illness, all in South India; and partnering with the Harlem Children's Zone to run a youth mentoring program, in New York. Prior to joining the University of Michigan, she also worked with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in India, to create a documentary on HIV/AIDS and its impact on adolescent health. Her work over the last decade and a half have spanned healthcare systems, grassroots nonprofits, global health organizations, and arts/theatre organizations ? all in the service of building stronger, more accessible communities.