Dr. Thomas has been a professor of Spanish and Director, Division of Spanish and Portuguese, at Baylor University, Waco, Texas, since August 2001. He taught Spanish and French at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, Belton, Texas, for 18 years. From 1975 to 1983, he was a professor of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Houston.

Thomas received his Ph.D. in Spanish and Portuguese from the University of Kansas and has also done postdoctoral study at the Université de Paris (Sorbonne), Dartmouth College, and Yale University. In 1990, he was named a Piper Professor by the Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation of San Antonio, Texas.

Dr. Thomas' second-year college Spanish textbook ˇDe viva voz! Intermediate Conversation and Grammar Review was published in November 2000 by McGraw-Hill, San Francisco, and his devotional book, A Harvest of Miracles:  True Stories that Challenge, Encourage, and Inspire, a collection of devotional articles, published and distributed by Morning Star Christian Books, Temple, Texas. 

He has conducted workshops in foreign language teaching methodology for the Texas Foreign Language Association, the University of Texas at Austin, and other institutions. His wife, Susan, is the institute's business manager. They have three grown children and three grandchildren.