Brian Thomas, MS, is an educator, Emmy Award–winning actor and nationally recognized writer. In 2016, he became assistant head of school at Mary Institute and Saint Louis Country Day School (MICDS). From 2008–2016, he was associate head of school and upper school head at the Bentley School in Oakland and Lafayette, California. Prior to that, he was the head at Presidio Hill School in San Francisco and the executive director, high school developer, and principal at the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy in Las Vegas. He began his professional career as an actor in New Haven, Connecticut, after graduating from Yale University in 1984. He also received a master’s degree in education from Portland State University in 2003.
Thomas grew up in the towns of Robbins and Harvey, Illinois, both on Chicago’s Far South Side. He has taught in schools and worked with children in a variety of settings since graduating from college. For the most part, however, he has worked in the realm of independent schools. Those schools include the Family School in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and Marlborough School, Oak Hill School, and North Hills Preparatory School in the Los Angeles Basin. He was chair of the English department at Marin Academy in San Rafael, California, and upper school head at the Catlin Gabel School, where he also taught English and facilitated the Ubuntu Council, which shepherded the school’s diversity efforts.
Thomas has written frequently about national education and parenting trends and issues, as well as about his time growing up in Chicago. He began his career in education as a studio teacher on the set of The Cosby Show, working with Cosby kids Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Tempestt Bledsoe. Before (and during) his early days in education, he worked as an actor in regional theaters and off-Broadway and then in Hollywood. He is married to Jaime Thomas, and they have two children, Eian and Olivia.