SR0418 95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0418 LRB095 14069 KXB 39921 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened to learn of the death of Dr. Terra L. Thomas of Chicago, who recently passed away; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Terra L. Thomas was born on October 16, 1947, in Easton, Maryland; she was a graduate of Morgan State University and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.; October 2007 would have been her 30-year reunion with her sorority line; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Thomas received her doctorate in Psychology from Adelphi University; for almost 40 years, she worked as a counselor, a motivator, an educator, a mentor (especially to women), a teacher, and advisor to all who solicited her wisdom; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Thomas became the President and CEO of Human Resources Development Institute, Inc. (HRDI) in 2004, after the passing of the agency's co-founder, Dr. C. Vincent Bakeman; the agency provides behavioral health services, with more than 18,000 clients in Illinois and 5 other states; she had been with the agency since 1978 and worked in various capacities in all areas of behavioral health care; she was a child psychologist and consulted with hospitals and charter schools nationwide; for eleven years, she served as an associate faculty member at Northwestern University Medical School's Institute of Psychiatry, where she provided clinical supervision to the professional staff and graduate students; she served as a board member for Illinois Alcoholism & Drug Dependence Association (IADDA); Community Behavioral Healthcare Association (CBHA) of Illinois; International Council on Alcoholism and Addiction (ICAA); Governor's Taskforce for the consolidation of the departments of substance abuse and alcoholism in 1984, and Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) from 2004-2006; and

WHEREAS, She traveled and consulted worldwide, including service as a Technical Advisor to the Ministry of Health of South Africa, as an Expert Trainer for the United Nations Drug Control Programs in Western Africa, and as a trainer in Cultural Competency for various diverse populations; she consulted with the Presidents of Zambia, Nigeria, Mozambique, and Liberia; she represented the United States Office of Drug Control in Peru; she served as an expert consultant and trainer to the United States Offices of the National Institute of Drug Abuse, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention throughout the United States and assisted in substance abuse prevention and AIDS in the Virgin Islands; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Thomas was a designer and trainer for various HIV/AIDS outreach education and prevention models, including being a co-founder of the AIDS Foundation Chicago, a co-founder of the Midwest Training and Education Center (MATEC), based at the University of Illinois-Chicago, a founding member of the Illinois AIDS Advisory Board, and a consultant to the United States government on the prevention of the spread of AIDS among the mentally ill and youth; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Thomas still found time to spend and to travel the world with her three children; she was her children's biggest fan and the biggest supporter of their activities in music, sports, and performing arts; Dr. Thomas and her children were active members of the Apostolic Church of God; Dr. Terra Thomas is survived by her sons, Rheaves and Brooks; her brothers, Ronald Thomas, Dwayne Thomas, and Albert Nash; her seven nieces; her two nephews; her grandmother Nellie Leatherberry; her four aunts; her three uncles; and a host of cousins, friends, and associates; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn, along with her family and friends, the passing of Dr. Terra L. Thomas; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to the family of Dr. Terra L. Thomas as a symbol of our sympathy.