City Health Director Anna Thomas, Citizen of the Year: Leads with passion and a warrior spirit

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City Health Director Anna Thomas was named 2021 Citizen of the Year by the Greater Manchester Chamber. Photo/Carol Robidoux

MANCHESTER, NH – The 2021 Greater Manchester Chamber’s Citizen of the Year Award ceremony was a return to in-person networking with a pandemic twist. Attendees were able to stroll the promenade at the home of the Fisher Cats, Northeast Delta Dental Stadium, or tune in via live stream on the Chamber’s website as City Public Health Director Anna Thomas received accolades for her leadership during a year of unparalleled health challenges.

After some mixing and mingling, those in attendance at the stadium settled into seats or stood along the upper deck as Chamber CEO and President Mike Skelton appeared on the Jumbotron to introduce Thomas. The presentation included prerecorded remarks from many who have worked closely with Thomas, including Mayor Joyce Craig, Boys & Girls Club CEO Diane Fitzpatrick, Arthur Sullivan co-owner of Brady Sullivan Properties, and Robert Tourigny, Executive Director of NeighborWorks Southern NH.


[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw6rtU5sELg]

Above: Watch the Chamber’s virtual presentation.


Tourigny spoke of Thomas’ deep understanding of the complexities that correlate housing and public health, and her ability to lead the city’s health department with passion and understanding. Fitzpatrick recognized Thomas’ warrior spirit. Sullivan thanked Thomas for her unwavering dedication to the city. Craig acknowledged Thomas’ brave and bold leadership of New Hampshire’s largest city during a worldwide pandemic and expressed her gratitude for Thomas’ unflinching ability to manage a situation for which there was no playbook.

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Part of the June 24 celebration was prerecorded and presented both at the stadium and virtually on the Chamber’s website. Photo/Carol Robidoux

Skelton then interviewed Thomas in his signature Q&A style, asking Thomas what the award meant to her.

“I’m overwhelmed with gratitude and humbled,” Thomas said, adding that she accepted the award on behalf of the community and the city’s health department because it represents “so many people working so hard.”

Skelton noted that since its inception in 1954, the Citizen of the Year recipient has been decided by a selection committee made up of past Citizens of the Year; choosing Thomas following a year of “unthinkable” challenges to the health and wellness of Manchester’s citizenry was particularly meaningful.

“This pandemic has touched every person in this community, and in the world,” both positively and negatively, Thomas said. “This is the first time we relied on the collective action of our community. Our patient here was literally an entire community.”

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Attendees chose between watching the presentation from the promenade, enhanced with comfy seats and elegant decor, or in stadium seating. Photo/Carol Robidoux

Skelton then recognized Thomas for her passion around public health and asked where that began for her.

“I was the youngest of my family and the only girl, so I came up fighting and never really stopped,” said Thomas, who credited her parents, teachers and mentors along the way who taught her not to settle or be risk-averse. “I learned to stretch beyond my comfort zone, and I felt that at a young age.” She also said her time in the military – 16 years served as a Major in the Medical Service Corps – developed her drive to always strive to do more and better, every day.

Thomas came to Manchester in 1994 on a one-year CIP grant with no intention of staying on, and never left.

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Greater Manchester Chamber CEO and President Mike Skelton introduced Anna Thomas following the prerecorded segment. Photo/Carol Robidoux

“I fell in love with the city, it’s large enough for variety and diversity, but small enough to get your arms around it and feel the change you can be part of,” Thomas said.

She was nominated by Mayor Joyce Craig in 2018 to serve as the Public Health Director for the City of Manchester, making her the first female to hold the role. As director, in addition to overseeing the health department with 65 full- and part-time staff, and a total budget of over $9 million dollars, she rose to the challenge of leading the city’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Following the virtual segment of the presentation, Thomas took to the podium to thank her family and relay her gratitude — and even sneak in a public health update, joked Skelton afterward. In addition to an award statuette, Thomas received two tickets from Southwest Airlines to “anywhere she wants to go,” and two season tickets to the NH Fisher Cats games.

A video of those remarks can be viewed below.




 

About this Author

Carol Robidoux

PublisherManchester Ink Link

Longtime NH journalist and publisher of ManchesterInkLink.com. Loves R&B, German beer, and the Queen City!