Brooklyn's Progress
November 2002

Martha J. Thomas has been named assistant vice president for community and government relations at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn.  In announcing the promotion, John C. LaRosa, M.D., president of SUNY Downstate, said, “Ms. Thomas is a long time employee at Downstate and her wealth of knowledge of both the internal and external communities will continue to serve the institution in this new role.”  Ms. Thomas, who had been director of community relations in the Office of Institutional Advancement, will now report directly to the president.

Ms. Thomas is a member of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce’s Board of Directors.

In her new role, Ms. Thomas will continue as the official campus governmental relations officer and become more actively involved in strategic planning with other senior managers to optimize opportunities and courses of action for the institution.  She will be responsible for researching and providing the institution’s position on issues related to pending legislation on health and education, while continuing to be the liaison for the academic medical center and the community.

Ms. Thomas has been employed at Downstate since 1977, serving at various times as both director of community relations and of media relations.  Prior to coming to Downstate, Ms. Thomas was a Michele Clarke Fellow at Columbia University and a television reporter at two Florida stations:  WCTV in Tallahassee and WJXT in Jacksonville.  She is also a playwright whose work has been produced on Manhattan’s Theater Row and in Harlem, Brooklyn, Phoenix, Arizona, and Fort Campbell Kentucky.

She is the mother of two.  Her son, Eric is a teacher in Trenton, New Jersey, and her daughter, Dr. Cherryl Thomas, is a graduate of Downstate’s College of Medicine who practices medicine in New Jersey.