MEET THE FACULTY/STAFF
Christine Thomas, Ph.D.,MPH
Dr. Thomas holds Bachelor's degrees in Psychology and Philosophy, a Master's in Public Health, and a Doctorate in Sociology. Since 2016, she has taught various courses in health and sociology, including Total Wellness, Introduction to Sociology, Sociology of Aging, Social Problems, and Social Psychology. For the Honors College, she has taught Mapping Mental Illness and Cults in American Society, and plans to soon teach Divided Cities, Divided Lives: Why Where You Live Matters. Additionally, she served as the co-instructor for Place-As-Text: Central Mexico and a USDA Justice Challenge Field Course on food justice.
Her prior research focused on adolescent suicidality and identifying barriers to care in rural communities. Currently, her scholarly work explores the influence of place and space on mental health, income, and educational outcomes.
Over the past decade, she has contributed to complex epidemiological and ethnographic research projects, collaborating with various tribal, SAMHSA, IHS, and DOJ initiatives that examine the effects of poverty, culture, substance abuse, mental health, educational attainment, and isolation. Dr. Thomas has also presented her work at conferences such as the SAMHSA Native Connections Suicide Prevention Regional Conference, the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition Annual Conference, the Newberry Consortium in American Indian Studies, and various tribal, regional, and national events.
With sincere humility, she has seen a glimmer of how higher education functions at the local, regional, and national levels, and how it influences social behavior on those scales. Consequently, she recognizes how national imperatives can impact local efforts and how local efforts can influence national endeavors. This insight, she hopes, will enable her to make a positive impact in an ever-changing world.