Congratulations to Dr. Alvin Thomas, Ph.D.

Congratulations to Dr. Alvin Thomas, Ph.D., PAU’s Assistant Professor and Associate Director of the Center For Excellence in Diversity. His research paper, “Walking Away Hurt, Walking Around Scared: A Cluster Analysis of Violence Exposure Among Young Black Males,” is published online in the Journal of Black Psychology. 

We would like to welcome Dr. Thomas to the PAU community. Dr. Alvin Thomas is a clinical psychologist whose work focuses on the risk and protective factors for African American boys who are situated in conditions that imperil them toward negative outcomes. This is closely related to his overall interest in ethnic identity, father-son relationships, and mental health in men and boys. His current work explores training gaps in diversity training specifically related to father (nonresident) involvement in service provision to their children. His work has clinical and primary intervention implications - focusing on the resilience of African American boys as well as their family unit in the face of under-resourced neighborhood context.

Dr. Thomas is an alumni and fellow of the prestigious International Max Planck Research School on the Life Course and Phi Beta Kappa national honor society among others. Dr. Thomas has received numerous awards including the Rackham International Student Fellowship, Patricia Gurin Research Award. He was the first male to receive an award from the Center for the Education of Women, and the Rackham Graduate Student Research Grant, the last of which he used to pilot an intervention study aimed at addressing mental health needs of juveniles in state custody in a Caribbean island. Dr. Thomas is originally from the beautiful Caribbean island of Saint Lucia.