Dr. Lisa Rey Thomas is a Research Scientist at the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute. Dr. Thomas received a degree in clinical psychology from the University of Washington, and completed her clinical internship at the VA Medical Center at American Lake (Tacoma). She is past-chair of the American Psychological Association's Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs (CEMA), as well as Chair of the APA's Division 18, Psychologists in Indian Country Section, and has recently been involved in the People Awakening Project, an NIAAA-funded project at the University of Alaska – Fairbanks studying Alaska Native pathways to sobriety. Dr. Thomas is also Treasurer of the Native Research Network. At ADAI, she is Co-Investigator of the Healing of the Canoe project, working with Drs. Dennis Donovan and Heather Lonczak, and PI of the Tribal Healing and Wellness Conference funded by NIH/NCMHD.

Current Projects:

• Tribal Healing and Wellness Conference. The aim of this conference-planning project is to organize a one-and-a-half day conference for May 2008 that would bring together representatives from the 29 federally recognized tribes, other American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) agencies, and urban AIAN communities. A post-conference report will document identified health issues of the Tribal communities, evidence-based approaches currently in use, and other interventions that appear promising but need further evaluation. This report will then set the agenda for future conferences, supporting more collaborative, community-based research addressing identified areas of health disparity in the AIAN community. more...
  

• The Healing of the Canoe. This three-year project will plan, implement, and evaluate a community-based and culturally-based intervention aimed at connecting Native American youth to their cutlural heritage, as a means to reduce substance abuse and other health problems. The project will be highly collaborative with the Suquamish Tribe, a reservation community in the Pacific Northwest. more...

• National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network - Washington Node. A multisite network of regional research and training centers working in conjunction with community-based treatment programs to implement and evaluate behavioral and pharmacological interventions with demonstrated efficacy in community-based programs. (Dr. Thomas works with the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, one of the community treatment programs participating in the Washington Node of the CTN.) more...

View all ADAI projects Dr. Thomas has participated in, both current and completed.

Recent and Representative Publications:

1. Mohatt GV, Rasmus SM, Thomas LR, Allen J, Hazel K, Marlatt GA. Risk, resilience, and natural recovery: A model of recovery from alcohol abuse for Alaska Natives. Addiction 2007 103:205-215 (Pubmed abstract) (THO 07-01)
   
   
2. Allen J, Mohatt GV, Rasmus SM, Hazel K, Thomas LR, Lindley S , People Awakening Team. The tools to understand: Community as co-researcher on culture-specific protective factors for Alaska Natives. Journal of Prevention and Intervention in the Community 2006; 32(1&2). (Pubmed abstract) (THO 06-02)

3. Journeys of the Circle Project, Seattle Indian Health Board ; Addictive Behaviors Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Washington. Canoe Journey - Life's Journey: A Life Skills Manual For Native Adolescents. Seattle : University of Washington, Addictive Behaviors Research Center, 2005. (THO 06-01)

4. Mohatt GV, Rasmus SM, Thomas LR, Allen J, Hazel K, Hensel C. "Tied together like a woven hat" : Protective pathways to Alaska Native sobriety. Harm Reduction Journal 2004; 1(10). (THO 04-01) (Full text)

5. Mohatt GV, Thomas LR, People Awakening Team. Dilemmas in ethnical research among Alaska Natives: A case example. In: Trimble JE and Fisher CB (eds.). The Handbook of Ethical Research with Ethnocultural Populations and Communities. Thousand Oaks, CA : Sage Publications, Inc., 2006, pp. 93-115. (THO 06-01)

   View more publications by Dr. Thomas.

Updated 12/2007
http://depts.washington.edu/adai/staff/thomasbio.htm