Thom Curtis, Ph.D.

Thom Curtis, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Hawaii at Hilo where he has taught since 1995. His research has focused on individual, family and societal responses to stress including family violence, terrorism and disasters. Dr. Curtis has served as Disaster Services volunteer for the American Red Cross since 1990 and later became Hawaii’s first certified Disaster Mental Health instructor. He has traveled throughout the country to disaster sites as a researcher or as an American Red Cross Disaster Mental Health Specialist. A pilot himself, he has responded to numerous fatal air incidents ranging from a Korean Airlines 747 that crashed in Guam to sight-seeing aircraft and air ambulance tragedies on his home island in Hawaii. He spent almost three weeks on the mainland during the immediate aftermath the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, first assisting with organization of hotlines for airline flight crews and then counseling families of seriously burned survivors from the World Trade Center. Dr. Curtis was a delegate to the Inaugural Asia-Pacific Homeland Security Summit held in Honolulu, November 19-21, 2003. He recently edited a book titled, Hawaii Remembers September 11th. He has been invited to present his research on child abuse in the wake of natural disasters and other topics at an assortment of conferences across the country including the American Psychological Association, the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, the American Counseling Association, the University of South Dakota’s Disaster Mental Health Institute and the National Conference of Family Relations. Dr. Curtis is a Clinical Member of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy and possesses licenses to practice in both Hawaii and Utah. He was elected twice as president of the Hawaii Association for Marriage and Family Therapy and was one of the first professionals in Hawaii to be recognized as a Certified Family Life Educator by the National Council on Family Relations.