Evonda Thomas, Director, Evanston Health Department
Doctoral candidate, nurse leader with over 22 years of progressive, diverse, community and clinical administrative experience in Public Health. Recognized for the development and implementation of recruitment and retention strategies for professional nursing personnel at the Chicago Department of Public Health. Designed transition models for a wellness center to provide direct patient care in collaboration with healthcare providers and other community leaders. Serves as a champion of public health and population based service excellence, and a positive change agent adept at responding to the increasingly challenging public health environment.
Thomas, 45, serves as the director of the Evanston Health Department, which she joined in 2005. At the time, she had a staff of 40. When H1N1 hit last year her staff had been cut by half and she was the only registered nurse qualified to vaccinate patients. Protecting a city from a potentially fatal illness seemed like an impossible task. With the will to act and help, Thomas wasted no time in gathering community partners such as pharmacists, firefighters and paramedics to train them to vaccinate. She helped create school-based vaccination clinics by working with the school districts. In just three weeks she assured the safety of students with the effective response. As the Public Health Director, Thomas she is responsible for management of the Evanston Health Department, a state certified local health department and is responsible for ensuring all state certification standards are met.
Evonda was among one of the first graduating classes in Chicago to make it through a high school license practical nursing program. She earned bachelor degrees in community health and nursing before pursuing a master’s degree in nursing at Governor’s State University in University Park. As she works to finish her doctorate in health administration, Thomas has plans to branch out into international health. She was not bashful to acknowledge her dreams of helping women deliver babies in South Africa. Thomas works extensively with the American Cancer Society and has impacted the lives of more than 500 women through breast cancer detection classes and mammography screenings. She also initiated a health ministry at her church and conducts health needs assessment survey’s of the congregation. The assessment supported an organized gospel aerobics class that changes the lives of church member’s one class at a time.
Evonda’s professional ties expand from American Nurses Association/Illinois Nurses Association, National Association of City and County Health Officials Advisory Board, National Forum for Public Black Administrators, American Cancer Society, West Cook Region-Board Member, 2002-present, Sigma Theta Tau-Founding Member of Chicago State University Chapter, Sankofa Rites of Passage Facilitator, and a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta National Sorority.
