Crozer-Keystone Health System’s Senior Health Services Department presented Dr. Norma Thomas with its third-annual “Senior Service Excellence Award” on May 5, 2006 at the Drexelbrook Corporate Events Center in Drexel Hill.
The Senior Service Excellence Award honors an individual who has had an impact on the aging community in Delaware County. In the 31 years Dr. Thomas has spent serving others, she has perfectly embodied the philosophy of Crozer-Keystone Health System’s Senior Health Services, which is “to meet the needs of the senior community with respect and dignity to enhance quality of life.”
Dr. Thomas received her bachelor’s degree in Social Work from Penn State University. She then went on to attain her master’s degree in Social Work from Temple University’s School of Social Administration and her doctorate degree from the University of Pennsylvania. From 1994-2004, Dr. Thomas worked for the Widener University Center for Social Work Education where she achieved tenure as an Associate Professor, also holding positions as Assistant Director and Baccalaureate Program Director. Dr. Thomas has held a leadership position in sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha which has afforded her yet another opportunity to give back to the community.
In addition to her contributions on an organizational level, Dr. Thomas has contributed on an individual level by delivering meals to the senior population in Chester County for 13 years. As one colleague said: “She even extended this gift of giving unselfishly to her family, involving her daughter in her quest to deliver meals for the isolated senior. Here is someone who leads by example.”
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Dr. Thomas gathered resources to help her family and others affected by the tragedy, using her personal experiences to educate others on the impact of large-scale disasters on the aging community. In 2005, Dr. Thomas was the summit keynote speaker at a conference entitled “Make Room for All: A National Summit and Hearing on the Recommended Priorities for the WHCoA: Diversity, Cultural Competency and Discrimination in an Aging America.” The goal of this conference was to highlight the growing diversity of the nation’s older population and brainstorm ways to help service providers and policy makers address this diversity in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and other recent national events.
Dr. Thomas is currently the President of the Board of Senior Community Services, Vice President of the Board for Haddington Multi-Services for Older Adults Inc,. and serves on the Board of the American Society on Aging. She has been praised by the nominating committee “for her years of service on a professional and educational level, which comes from a genuine personal viewpoint,” and her “sustained commitment to the geriatric community.”
The Senior Service Excellence Award was presented to Dr. Thomas at the County Office of Services for the Aging’s John F. Bauer Professional Symposium.