Bertha Thomas: Finding connection
Posted: July 17, 2024
Being in Kirksville, Missouri, in 2024 was never part of the plan for ATSU Board of Trustees member Bertha Thomas. She moved to Kirksville with her husband, a professor of French, in 1992 when he got a position at what is now Truman State University. Like their previous stops to that point, they figured their stint in northeast Missouri would span three, maybe four years.
More than three decades later, Thomas looks back upon an incredibly successful career here, including 15 years as assistant dean for multicultural affairs at Truman and nearly nine as a member of ATSU’s Board of Trustees.
“I’ve found meaning and connections in Kirksville,” she says.
Throughout her career at Truman, Thomas interacted with ATSU faculty, staff, and students, both through her work and in community organizations, and she developed great respect for the University and its mission. When the opportunity arose to become a member of the Board of Trustees, Thomas was thrilled.
“It has been such an honor and privilege to serve on the board,” she says. “I have the utmost respect for our fellow board members and Craig M. Phelps, DO, ’84.”
Thomas, who will conclude her service to the board this year, helped guide ATSU during a time of growth and unprecedented challenge. She praises the work of University leadership, faculty, staff, and students in navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. She celebrates the efforts of ATSU Chief Diversity Officer Clinton Normore, MBA, and his staff in developing and growing initiatives like the Graduate Health Professions Scholarship and Dreamline Pathways programs. And she looks proudly upon ATSU establishing its third campus, the College for Healthy Communities, in Santa Maria, California, where students become physician assistants who will fill critical needs in the healthcare workforce.
This is the core of ATSU’s mission – bringing whole person healthcare to the underserved – and something deeply personal to Thomas.
“I remember going to the first graduation for MOSDOH (ATSU’s Missouri School of Dentistry & Oral Health) and thinking how critically important it was for ATSU to have started a dental school in Missouri, partner with Affinia Healthcare, and bring dental care to such an underserved community,” she says. “I grew up very poor and didn’t have access to dental care growing up. For our institution to be in a community where people who may not have had dental care are now able to receive dental care has been such a wonderful thing to see.”
It’s what sets ATSU apart.
“One of the reasons I was so attracted to being a part of ATSU is because of all of the health disparities and all of the need. So many institutions, even osteopathic ones, do not put a concerted effort into helping students understand why they might want to spend their professional careers working in underserved areas, rural areas, inner cities, those areas with a dearth of healthcare professionals,” Thomas says. “A lot of schools say they might care, but we really believe it. The faculty and staff believe it. The deans and the board believe it. The chancellor believes it. I think we train highly compassionate, dedicated health professionals, who live our mission.
“There will always be challenges, but what I see at this moment, we have a great legacy, more than 130 years, and we’re the mothership for the osteopathic tradition. As long as we can be flexible, and innovative, and stay true to our mission, ATSU has a bright future ahead.”
“Bertha has greatly assisted the growth and success of ATSU. From putting on a hard hat to helping us imagine and visit new program facilities to helping our students understand the power of cultural proficiency, Bertha has always been there to help.”
– Dr. Craig M. Phelps, ATSU chancellor