De'Shay Thomas 

 

De’Shay Thomas  received  the MSW degree from California State University in 2013, and enrolled in the PhD program in social work at Arizona State University (ASU) in fall 2013. She entered the third year of doctoral studies this fall 2015.  De’Shay worked as a graduate research associate at the Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center during the second year of her doctoral studies.

 

De’Shay’s research focuses on health disparities among ethnic/racial and gender and sexual minority women. While enrolled in the Bridges Program,  she co-wrote a book chapter with her mentor, Dr. Raquel Warley, titled “F.I.T. Camp: A biopsychosocial model of positive youth development for at-risk adolescents,” which was published in Neuroscience and social work: Implications for research, policy and practice.  In 2015, De’Shay delivered scientific presentations on the help-seeking behaviors of African-American women, gender, and sexual minority women at two conferences: the InQUEERy Conference and the Let’s Get Better Together: A Qualitative Look at Health Care in Arizona Conference. De’Shay delivered a presentation at the 61st Annual Council in Social Work Education (CSWE) in October 2015 on the help-seeking attitudes and behaviors of LGTBTQ women of African descent.

 

De’Shay engages in other activities besides conducting research, publishing, and presenting at professional conferences. In the summer of 2015, she taught a course  focusing on advanced generalist social work practice skills for first year MSW students in the advanced placement program at ASU School of Social Work. In the Fall of 2015, De’Shay is teaching two social work courses to students of the Bachelors of Social Work (BSW) program in ASU School of Social Work: Introduction to Social Work and Micro Human Behavior.