Rebecca L. Thomas, PhD

Professor and Director, Center for International Social Work Studies

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Rebecca L. Thomas, Ph.D., is Professor at the University Of Connecticut (UConn) School of Social Work, and Director of the Center for International Social Work Studies.  She Chairs the Policy Practice Concentration, as well as the focused area of International Social Work. She directs a joint academic program exchange between UConn and Yerevan State University in Armenia. Her current research and scholarship includes issues related to remittances, international development, poverty, and climate-induced migration.

Dr. Thomas is Chair of the Global Commission of the Council on Social Work Education, and represents the International Association of the Schools of Social Work on the NGO Committee on Migration at the United Nations. She serves on the City of Hartford Commission on Immigrant and Refugee Affairs.

For the 2023-2024 academic year, Thomas received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award in Social Work from the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board to conduct research in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Research Interests

International Social Work

International Development

Climate Induced Migration

Program Evaluation/Employment and Training Programs

Remittances

Microcredit/Microfinance

Community Capacity Building

Curriculum Vitae

View Rebecca Thomas’s CV