Ms. Thomas is a leading authority in marine ecosystem restoration and artificial structure design, as well as a specialist in coral reef structure, oyster, mangrove and seagrass restoration. She spent spent over 10 years studying marine restoration from a structural perspective to gain a unique understanding of reef-building on modern and geologic timescales. As a Co-Principal Investigator (PI) and project manager for numerous restoration and reef projects throughout Florida she has also been recognized as an expert in project management, scientific communication, artificial reef design and deployments, technical scuba diving, and database management. She has managed teams of up to 25 members and acquired funding to finance, oversee, and execute on multiple complex marine restoration projects. She has planned and deployed 5 artificial reef projects with over 350 structures deployed for habitat, restoration and ecotourism. She has coordinated over 30,000 coral outplants through Florida United States, Cairns Australia, and Tulum Mexico. She has served as a guest speaker for various academic and private organizations throughout the world representing scaling marine restoration.