Phil Thomas
Phil Thomas is an Adjunct Faculty Member at the Schar School of Policy and Government and the Honors College at GMU since 2013 where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on the causes and effects of global hunger and the interrelationship between food security and national security, conducted research, and authored food security related articles. While at GMU, he has organized a series of summits on global food aid and food security while increasing the profile of global food security issues throughout the University. From 1972 to 2013, Phil was an international affairs specialist and Assistant Director with the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) where he directed numerous reviews of US international food assistance, Global Food Security Programs, and UN operations. His congressionally mandated reviews and investigations resulted in significant management reforms on the national security implications of global food aid and food security issues in Sub-Saharan Africa, Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea, Central America, and Russia. He also served as a senior member of the Senate Permanent Investigations Subcommittee Task Force on the Iraq Oil-for-Food Scandal. He was elected to the Falls Church, Va. City Council in 1990 as a non-partisan candidate and served from 1992-1994 as Vice Mayor. He earned his bachelor’s and two-year master’s degree in international affairs from California State University in Sacramento. A U.S. Navy veteran, Thomas served from 1963 to 1965 as a Chaplain’s assistant at the US Naval Station in Annapolis and aboard the USS Shenandoah home ported in Norfolk, Va.