Kimberly Thomas's research, teaching, and practice concentrate on criminal law, especially on sentencing law and practice, juvenile justice, indigent persons accused of crimes, and prisoner re-entry into the community. Prof. Thomas is the cofounder (with Prof. Frank Vandervort) of the Juvenile Justice Clinic. In 2011, she spent three months as a legal education expert for the ABA Rule of Law Initiative in Amman, Jordan, working on law school curriculum development, especially in criminal law, as well as the creation and support of experiential education and the first clinics in the country. In addition, she spearheaded a weeklong series of trainings for Egyptian law professors through the ABA-ROLI office in Cairo, Egypt, on clinical legal education, curriculum innovation, and moot court. In 2013, Prof. Thomas was among several attorneys honored with the Justice for All Award from the Criminal Defense Attorneys of Michigan. The group developed a pro bono program to represent juvenile defendants following the 2012 United States Supreme Court Miller v. Alabama decision holding that mandatory juvenile life without parole sentences were unconstitutional. They created a comprehensive civil rights strategy which involved the recruitment, training, and support of more than 100 attorneys who volunteered their pro bono time and resources. Prior to joining the Law School faculty in 2003, Prof. Thomas served as a major trials attorney with Defender Association of Philadelphia. She is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Maryland and Harvard Law School, where she was editor-in-chief of the Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. After law school, Prof. Thomas clerked for Judge R. Guy Cole of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. During law school she worked for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, and spent time with Legal Aid of Cambodia and the Justice Committee of Parliament in Cape Town, South Africa. In addition to practicing law, she has worked as a newspaper reporter and a high school math teacher, and taught an undergraduate seminar in the economics department while she was at Harvard.