Katharine Thomas served as executive director of the Institute for Health & Recovery, Inc. March 2022 – December 2024. And, for 25 years prior, had worked closely with IHR founder and former executive director Dr. Norma Finkelstein.

Ms. Thomas has been working with high risk families in a variety of capacities for her entire career — as a child development specialist, and coordinator of intervention services for families. She has developed and overseen a program focused on training for Spanish-speaking family child care providers (The Childcare Project) and a program designed to build parent–child relationships in families affected by substance use disorders (The Kinship Project). She also served as director of program planning, policy and training for a Massachusetts-wide program providing services to families of young children with disabilities and delays (Massachusetts Early Intervention).

Ms. Thomas has participated in many policy development initiatives, including appointments to the Advisory Committee on Substance Exposed Newborns of the Governor’s Opioid Task Force (2016–2017), the Cambridge Human Services Commission (appointed by Cambridge city manager 2012–2015), and the governor’s Statewide Commission on Children, Youth, and Families (2011–2014).