Dr. Lindsey Thomas was named the recipient of the 2022 Leslie A. Baxter Early Career Award by the Family Communication Division of the National Communication Association (NCA). Each year one recipient is chosen from a list of nominees for this holistic early-career award. Thomas was awarded for her work and research in the field of family communication studies, focusing on family (de)construction, especially among youth who have been in the foster care system. The award was presented at the annual Family Communication Division business meeting on November 19 in New Orleans.
Thomas started her career in research during doctoral work at the University of Iowa. Starting this program, she was unsure of what she wanted to focus her research on, dabbling in interpersonal communication, family communication, and health communication. Thomas’ first topical graduate seminar was family communication with Dr. Leslie Baxter, who came to be her doctoral advisor and mentor.
The experiences of people Thomas knows and loves with the foster care system growing up is what drove her desire to focus on foster care as her primary area of research while working toward her Ph.D. “I like to look at the way communication constitutes or helps to dissolve assumed relationships,” Thomas explained. Her research places emphasis on the expansion of what is considered a family, in attempts to alleviate any misconceptions about the legitimacy of foster families or estranged families.
Thomas joined the School of Communication faculty in 2017 and is now in her sixth year of teaching at Illinois State University. She has taught an array of courses for the school’s graduate and undergraduate programs. Thomas is currently instructing an undergraduate Communication Research Methods course and one special topics course, Seminar in Interpersonal Communication: Narrative Relating, at the graduate level.
“I enjoy being at a university that values research and teaching equally. It’s a good fit for me,” Thomas said. While leading these courses, Thomas is also able to actively conduct her research and continue to publish journal articles, book chapters, and other scholarly products that exemplify her dedication to her studies.
When asked what she hopes to see come from her research, Thomas replied, “I hope it makes people’s lives better, whether it makes them feel like they’re not alone, that they have more labels to explain things, or that it helps in an applied sense with practice or policy.”
Beyond the publications and course work, she is also a court appointed special advocate (CASA) through circuit court, working with fostered youth who have experienced abuse or neglect to advocate in their best interest. With her extensive knowledge of the workings of the foster care system, Thomas is able to amplify these children’s voices to ensure they end up in loving, permanent homes.
Through her work both in and outside of the School of Communication, Thomas has proven to be a very valuable and crucial addition to Illinois State’s faculty over the past six years. Among the impact her research has had on others and the array of awards she has already received, the School of Communication is excited to see what Dr. Lindsey Thomas does next.
