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1
SENATE RESOLUTION

 
2     WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened to
3 learn of the death of Dr. Terra L. Thomas of Chicago, who
4 recently passed away; and
 
5     WHEREAS, Dr. Terra L. Thomas was born on October 16, 1947,
6 in Easton, Maryland; she was a graduate of Morgan State
7 University and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.;
8 October 2007 would have been her 30-year reunion with her
9 sorority line; and
 
10     WHEREAS, Dr. Thomas received her doctorate in Psychology
11 from Adelphi University; for almost 40 years, she worked as a
12 counselor, a motivator, an educator, a mentor (especially to
13 women), a teacher, and advisor to all who solicited her wisdom;
14 and
 
15     WHEREAS, Dr. Thomas became the President and CEO of Human
16 Resources Development Institute, Inc. (HRDI) in 2004, after the
17 passing of the agency's co-founder, Dr. C. Vincent Bakeman; the
18 agency provides behavioral health services, with more than
19 18,000 clients in Illinois and 5 other states; she had been
20 with the agency since 1978 and worked in various capacities in
21 all areas of behavioral health care; she was a child
22 psychologist and consulted with hospitals and charter schools

 

 

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1 nationwide; for eleven years, she served as an associate
2 faculty member at Northwestern University Medical School's
3 Institute of Psychiatry, where she provided clinical
4 supervision to the professional staff and graduate students;
5 she served as a board member for Illinois Alcoholism & Drug
6 Dependence Association (IADDA); Community Behavioral
7 Healthcare Association (CBHA) of Illinois; International
8 Council on Alcoholism and Addiction (ICAA); Governor's
9 Taskforce for the consolidation of the departments of substance
10 abuse and alcoholism in 1984, and Corporate Council on Africa
11 (CCA) from 2004-2006; and
 
12     WHEREAS, She traveled and consulted worldwide, including
13 service as a Technical Advisor to the Ministry of Health of
14 South Africa, as an Expert Trainer for the United Nations Drug
15 Control Programs in Western Africa, and as a trainer in
16 Cultural Competency for various diverse populations; she
17 consulted with the Presidents of Zambia, Nigeria, Mozambique,
18 and Liberia; she represented the United States Office of Drug
19 Control in Peru; she served as an expert consultant and trainer
20 to the United States Offices of the National Institute of Drug
21 Abuse, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention throughout the
22 United States and assisted in substance abuse prevention and
23 AIDS in the Virgin Islands; and
 
24     WHEREAS, Dr. Thomas was a designer and trainer for various

 

 

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1 HIV/AIDS outreach education and prevention models, including
2 being a co-founder of the AIDS Foundation Chicago, a co-founder
3 of the Midwest Training and Education Center (MATEC), based at
4 the University of Illinois-Chicago, a founding member of the
5 Illinois AIDS Advisory Board, and a consultant to the United
6 States government on the prevention of the spread of AIDS among
7 the mentally ill and youth; and
 
8     WHEREAS, Dr. Thomas still found time to spend and to travel
9 the world with her three children; she was her children's
10 biggest fan and the biggest supporter of their activities in
11 music, sports, and performing arts; Dr. Thomas and her children
12 were active members of the Apostolic Church of God; Dr. Terra
13 Thomas is survived by her sons, Rheaves and Brooks; her
14 brothers, Ronald Thomas, Dwayne Thomas, and Albert Nash; her
15 seven nieces; her two nephews; her grandmother Nellie
16 Leatherberry; her four aunts; her three uncles; and a host of
17 cousins, friends, and associates; therefore, be it
 
18     RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-FIFTH GENERAL
19 ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn, along with
20 her family and friends, the passing of Dr. Terra L. Thomas; and
21 be it further
 
22     RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
23 presented to the family of Dr. Terra L. Thomas as a symbol of

 

 

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1 our sympathy.