Guest Profile
Dr. Bill Thomas
Dr. Bill Thomas is an author, entrepreneur, musician, teacher, farmer and physician whose wide-ranging work explores the terrain of human aging. Best known for his health care system innovations, he is the founder of a global non-profit The Eden Alternative which works to improve the care provided to older people. He is the creator of The Green HouseR which Provider Magazine has called the "pinnacle of culture change." Dr. Thomas also developed the Senior ER model of care and is now working to transform the acute care services provided to elders.
His most recent novel Second Wind Simon & Schuster is a book to help boomers navigate the passage to a slower, deeper, and more connected life. Dr. Thomas' latest play Play What's Not There blends Greek mythology and Jazz with a taut exploration of the tension between work and life. The play premiered at the prestigious Guthrie Theater. In Spring 2014, Simon and Schuster will publish Dr. Thomas' non-fiction reconsideration of the mythology that surrounds America's Post War Generation Coming of Age: Outgrowing Adulthood and Becoming the Person You are Meant to Be. As the guitarist for the acoustic duo "Hot Koko," Thomas has recorded and released two collections of American roots music.
Dr. Thomas' eclectic career has included two decades living off the grid and running a mixed power farming operation Summer Hill, founding one of the first technology companies to offer clinicians immediate access to outcome data Rumpelstitlskin, teaching medical students and serving as a founding faculty member of UMBC's Erickson School of Aging. He is also the founder of the influential multi-author blogging platform, ChangingAging.org. A popular public speaker, Dr. Thomas is known for his thoughtful, heartfelt and Powerpoint-free approach to engaging with a wide range of audiences.
This synthesis of imagination and action led the Wall Street Journal to highlight Dr. Thomas as one of the nations "top 10 innovators" changing the future of retirement in America and US News and World Report to name him as one of "America's best leaders." The magazine noted his "startling common-sense ideas and his ability to persuade others to take a risk," and concluded that "this creative and wildly exuberant country doctor has become something of a culture changer--re-imagining how Americans will approach aging in the 21st century."
Dr. Thomas continues to write, perform and help Fortune 500 companies and not-for-profits develop new products and services that make the most of normal human aging.
