Anna Thomas

Anna Thomas
Associate Managing Director
National Wind Institute

Over the years, Anna Thomas has demonstrated her commitment to Texas Tech through her resolve to push herself, her staff, her faculty, research affiliates, and others forward toward excellence. Though her days and evenings are full of proposals, grant-writing, problem-solving, and preparation for major events, she is always available to reassure, affirm, and support her colleagues. She was instrumental in bringing the Department of Energy and Sandia National Labs SWIFT site to Texas Tech University and completely responsible for planning and hosting the Swift Site commissioning ceremony, which received rave reviews for the U.S. Department of Energy and other participants. These events garnered national attention, and not only did she come in under budget for their planning, but she involved her entire staff and faculty so that each person was working towards the mission of making her organization nationally recognized for its facilities. Anna also putting together a Sandia National Labs workshop, which will garner more notoriety for Texas Tech. In addition, during Hurricane Harvey, she left the day-to-day operations of the organization to help researchers gather data and information that could change the way we think about storm mitigation. She literally risked her life alongside other storm chasers as part of the research process for hazard mitigation. All the while, she maintained contact with the organization and ran the day-to-day operations from afar. Anna's efforts show her dedication to the overall success of Texas Tech University.