Steve Thomas brings extensive public-sector management experience and a reputation as an insightful and caring individual with a high degree of integrity. Steve especially enjoys coaching leadership teams and executives to realize their maximum potential. He has facilitated training seminars on leadership and diversity, provided team building and  improved workplace relations and work processes for international and regional corporations, and government agencies. 

Currently, Steve serves as Faculty in the Masters in Organization Development program at Sonoma State University. He has been a past chair of the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce Leadership Division responsible for the Leadership Santa Rosa and Tomorrow's Leaders Today leadership programs.  In 2004, Steve retired from Santa Rosa Police Department as the Field Services Commander responsible for 135 staff.   While in his role as Police Commander, he was a driving part of the leadership team responsible for the implementation of Community Oriented Policing which led to national recognition of Santa as California’s top law enforcement agency.  He was actively involved in the creation of a Community Multi-Cultural Board to address the needs of minority communities and worked closely with representatives of the health and education professions in developing initiatives aimed at improving health and quality of life. 

Steve was selected as a “Public Health Champion” for the County of Sonoma in April of 2004, and has developed a deep understanding of the challenges and barriers to building a fully engaged and thriving community through his work with a broad spectrum of community partners.

​Experienced in the development of strategic plans for government, private and nonprofit agencies, Steve is well versed in the principles of Collective Impact Strategies, wholesale systems change, and the co-creation of new realities from disparate points of view.  In recent years Steve has helped the County of Sonoma develop and implement their first Strategic Plan which included the Upstream Initiatives project, and conducted a feasibility study that led to the formation of the Sonoma County Behavioral Health Mobile Response team.  

Steve has been a student of leadership, management, human systems and organizational change since 1983. He is a graduate of Command College Class 29, a State of California Peace Officers Standards and Training post-graduate level futures-based leadership program. He is also a graduate of the Police Executive Research Forum’s and Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government Senior Management Institute for Police.

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Steve Thomas, M.A.