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Karen Thomas is in her fourth year as an area executive director, supervising a cluster of schools and working collaboratively with principals and staff to implement new and innovative ways to improve student achievement. A product of GCCISD schools, having attended Bowie Elementary, Cedar Bayou Junior School, and Robert E. Lee High School, Thomas attended Lee College before earning her bachelor’s degree from Texas A & M University and her master’s degree from the University of Houston Clear Lake. She started her career in Galena Park ISD as a third-grade teacher, coming home to GCCISD in 1990 as a kindergarten teacher at Crockett Elementary. She became an assistant principal in splitting her time between Stephen F. Austin and De Zavala elementary and took over the assistant principal position at Travis Elementary the next year. She served also as principal at Hopper Primary and, most recently, at Travis Elementary, and was selected as Principal of the Year in 2010-11 and 2015-16. Thomas enjoys spending time with her family – parents Gary and Pat Thomas (retired teacher from Travis Elementary); brothers, sisters-in-law; nieces and her dog Bailey.