Dr. Thomas has been in the Hendrix biology department for just one school year, but she's already making strides towards the campus' goal for sustainability. Dr. Thomas primarily teaches Anatomy & Physiology and Nutrition, and works as an active member of the Health Sciences program. She earned her PHD in nutrition from the University of Kentucky, and before she was here she taught A&P at UCA for 8 years. Her research background is in biomedical research, but she quickly fell in love with sustainable gardening while at UCA, and she worked with their students to build a garden on their campus. She came to Hendrix with the primary goal of creating a sustainable garden and teaching our college's community about the benefits of learning how to create their own. This project has evolved into our team working to create a modified food forest, which is a diverse planting of edible plants that attempts to mimic the ecosystems and patterns found in nature. Along with creating this garden from the ground up with the help of students, faculty, and staff here at Hendrix, Dr. Thomas wants to use the resources that our team has been provided with to teach students how to grow their own food, prepare it using minimal food waste, and compost the scraps to continue the cycle of growth.