About the Author

George Thomas, Ph.D., is President of George Thomas & Associates, Ltd., a private
consulting firm engaged in adapting state-of-the-art conceptual and machine technologies
in order to expand the on-the-job production, transfer, and use of new knowlege in
street-level practice in the field of children, youth, and family services. During
his 30-year career, Dr. Thomas has servede as a street-gang worker, in public child
welfare, professor in two graduate schools of social work, director and then president
of a major social welfare research institute, and consultant to over 100 federal, state
and private child welfare organizations. He is internationally known through his numerous
publications and speaking engagements and has acquired and completed over $11 million
in funded research and development work studying foster care and group residential care,
child protection, child abuse, status offenders, and juvenile delinquency services.
His testimony before major fact-finding commissions and legislative bodies has
influenced child welfare legislation antionally and in several states. Dr. Thomas’s
recent work has centered on the development of computer-assisted, competency-oriented
child behavior and program assessment systems, including COBRS 2.0, and the Community
Living Assessment (CLA) which are now in agency use in the U.S. and in several countries
overseas.