Sister IAsia Thomas, EdD

Dr. Sister IAsia Thomas has been a student of formal collegiate knowledge for over twenty years. Her educational trajectory began at the Community College of Allegheny County. She moved to Carlow University for undergraduate and graduate studies and graduated with an EdD from the School of Education, University of Pittsburgh, Class of 2024. Dr. Thomas has been involved with uninterrupted activism for educational justice and the push for a more inclusive equity educational state in Pittsburgh Public Schools for twenty years. She holds exemplary leadership as executive director of Darisha La Watoto Kwa Africa-Children's Windows to Africa for seven years. Dr. Thomas is a consultant and trainer for organizations interested in African art and culture. She is co-chair of the Greater Pittsburgh Association of Black Psychologists (ABPSi), a member of the Diopian Institute for Scholarly Advancement (DISA), and a member of The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). She is energized, focused, and determined to keep the learning ignited through Africana Studies and community mobilizing. In 2024, she received an honorable mention for Envisioning a Just Pittsburgh for her poem Juxtaposition (ality). Kindezi: The Kongo Art of Babysitting guides her praxis around Black learning, written by Kimbwandende Kia Bunseki Fu-Kiau (Author), A.M. Lukondo-Wamba (Author), and Dr. Asa Hilliard's To Be an African Teacher. Her emerging scholarship currently concentrates on the power of oral history, archival analysis, African history, and psychology as central precepts to embolden equity work in urban school districts to evolve. She is a proponent of African-centered education as a lifelong imperative. Dr. Thomas was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and lives with her husband and daughters in Pittsburgh. She is committed to the vision, priorities, and sisterhood of Black Women for a Better Education.