Rebecca L. Thomas, PhD

Professor and Director, Center for International Social Work Studies

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 teaches in the Policy Practice Concentration and is the chair of 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 include issues related to forced migration such as climate induced migration, social entrepreneurship, remittances, international development, poverty and human rights.

Thomas serves on the board of the Katherine Kendall Institute of Council of 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. She is part of the Southeast Europe Academic Women’s Leadership Network. Currently she is a Fulbright Scholar in Sofia, Bulgaria. Thomas is lecturing at various universities but is housed in New Bulgaria University in Sofia where she is conducting research with service providers and Ukraine refugees in 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