Guyanese-born Erwin K. Thomas, PhD, (b. 1943) was raised in Georgetown, Guyana, as the eldest of eleven children. At the age of 26, he came to America to further his studies. He completed his undergraduate degree in mass media at the University of Oregon, Eugene, did graduate work in Speech (TV) at Brooklyn College (CUNY), worked at CBS Network Radio News (NYC), before teaching broadcasting and other mass media courses at Oswego State (SUNY).In 1978, he earned the PhD degree in International Journalism and Broadcasting, from the School of Journalism, University of Missouri - Columbia. After 28 years, as a professor also at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, and Norfolk State, VA, he retired from teaching. He served as vice president of the Institute for Learning in Retirement (ILR) at Old Dominion University, Virginia Beach, VA, and is presently a member of the Association for Education for Journalism in Mass Communication (AEJMC) Religion Media Interest Group.Thomas has published six books. His favorites are: Mass Media in 2025 with Brown H. Carpenter (Greenwood Press); his latest is entitled, Keys of Faith (2016); and Gifts of God (2017) will also be self-published. He is married to Mary Barta Thomas, and are parents of Matthew J. Thomas, of Charlottesville, VA. They are life-long members of the Church of the Holy Apostles, Virginia Beach - an ecumenical congregation of Episcopalians and Roman Catholics, where he serves as the social media coordinator of their facebook page.