Paul R. Thomas, Ed.D., R.D., Scientific Consultant (contractor)
Paul Thomas has been with the Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) as a Scientific Consultant since 2005. In that capacity he has contributed to various projects with most of the ODS scientific staff. Dr. Thomas works primarily in the ODS communications area, where he prepares dietary supplement fact sheets and the ODS e-newsletter. He co-directs the annual Dietary Supplement Research Practicum, a one-week intensive educational program to provide fundamental knowledge of dietary supplements to academic faculty, their doctoral students, post-docs, and research fellows. Dr. Thomas also administers the Federal Working Group on Dietary Supplements, which serves as a means of communication between ODS and its federal partners to co-fund research, expand opportunities for research-investigator training, and strengthen collaborative efforts involving dietary supplement research, education, and communication.
Dr. Thomas came to Washington, DC, to work on nutrition policy issues in 1987. For eight years he was a project director at the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine, National Academies. Other positions he has held include Fellow and Research Assistant Professor at the Center for Food and Nutrition Policy at Georgetown University, Expert Consultant to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Senior Staff Scientist with the Life Sciences Research Office. From 2000 to 2003, he wrote and published a newsletter, The Dietary Supplement.
Dr. Thomas received his Ed.D. in Nutrition Education in 1988 from Teachers College, Columbia University. While there, he co-authored a book with nutritionist Joan Dye Gussow, The Nutrition Debate: Sorting Out Some Answers (1986). He is a registered dietitian and a member of the American Society for Nutrition, the American Dietetic Association, and American Public Health Association.