Areas of Expertise

Decolonial climate policy
Climate migration
Climate justice
Program management

Short Bio

Mahalia Thomas is a program assistant in DGAP’s Center for Climate and Foreign Policy. She supports the management and organizational structure of the center. Her topical focus areas include understanding the effects of climate change through a decolonial lens and how to ensure a right to dignity in the policies proposed.

Thomas received her bachelor’s degree from New York University in political science with minors in sociology and social and public policy. Her research focused on criminal justice reform and the effect of varying constitutional understandings of freedom of speech. In her master’s program at New York University, she studied comparative politics, researching constitutional restraints on radical right parties and movements and their effects on electoral politics. Following graduation, she worked for the Population Europe office within the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research working on various EU- and German-funded projects on topics such as migration, aging populations, and the family unit within climate policies.