In 2023, Tonya Thomas joined the Office of Learning and Teaching as Curriculum Development Consultant. She studied at WSU earlier in life, and began working with the institution in 2017. Ms. Thomas will be working with the team here in the Office of Learning and Teaching to manage the curriculum inventory as well as to support faculty with the integration of innovative educational technologies in the instructional design of their courses. She is also an adjunct professor at WSU in both Communications and Business Administration, as well as a mentor for the Wayne Women Lead Next Level Career Conversations Program.

Prior to joining the Office of Learning and Teaching, Ms. Thomas served as instructional design/performance improvement consultant and senior business systems analyst with Finance & Business Operations at WSU; as Director of Systems Innovation at TechTown (Detroit); as Director, Educational Technology & Innovation (ET+I), The College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI; and as instructional design lead, project manager, and Quality Matters Coordinator with the Academic Technologies Group at Oakland Community College, where she was responsible for establishing quality course development standards, review and approval processes, and mandatory faculty training required for the institution to obtain its HLC online learning accreditation. Before that, she served as Director, Staff Learning & Development with Teach For America, where her chief charge was to oversee the effort to transform classroom training to web-based learning and performance support resources. She has also held education leadership roles with UnitedHealth Group, The University of Michigan, and Trinity Health.

Ms. Thomas earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Instructional Design from Walden University and a Master of Arts degree in Educational Technology from the University of Michigan. She is certified in project management and Lean Six Sigma process improvement, and also has two decades of experience managing creative design work and corporate communications.