Dr. Lashun Thomas, program coordinator of the environmental engineering program at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, has switched out her engineering cap for a crown.

Thomas was recently titled the 2019 Mrs. Little Rock, and will compete for the Mrs. Arkansas America title in November.

“This is the first time that I’ve ever done anything like this,” Thomas said. “Although it takes me totally outside of the engineering world, it gives me an opportunity to raise awareness about engineering careers to a wider audience of students and women in Arkansas and around the world. It also gives me a chance to promote the importance of family and marriage.”

While browsing online one evening, Thomas came across an advertisement for Mrs. Little Rock. Surprisingly, what caught her attention wasn’t the glitz and glamour of the competition, but the contestants’ platforms.

A pageant platform is a cause that a contestant chooses to volunteer for by either bringing awareness to, raising money for, or implementing a program that addresses a specific issue.

Thomas, who is a huge proponent of education, believed that stepping into the pageant world would provide her with an opportunity to inform a broader audience of students and women about careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. She also saw it as a chance to motivate these groups and show them that they have the power to make anything possible.

With nothing but success in mind, Thomas moved forward with completing the pageant application, which was followed by several conversations and an in-person meeting with the pageant director. After a much anticipated wait, she was titled the 2019 Mrs. Little Rock.

On November 10, she will compete in the Mrs. Arkansas America pageant in Hot Springs, Arkansas, ripping the runway in the interview, swim, and evening wear categories and representing her platform, “Empowering through Education-The Power of Knowledge.”

If Thomas wins, she will go on to represent Arkansas in the Mrs. America pageant. In addition to her traveling expenses being covered, she will enjoy television interviews and personal appearances that will help to amplify her role as a married woman.

From the field to the classroom

Growing up in Phillips County near Elaine, Arkansas, Thomas was always taught to value education. At a very young age, she witnessed the toll and strain of hard work on her entire family. Before she was old enough to attend grade school, Thomas spent time working on her grandfather’s farm alongside her grandparents, mother, aunts, uncles, and cousins, who all lived under the same roof, to assist in the up-keep of the land.

“I would help with potatoes when it was time to dig them up,” Thomas recalled. “I also helped with chopping cotton. My grandfather didn’t grow cotton, but during the summers when we needed extra money, because we were very poor, my mom would get us all together, and she would haul cotton choppers.”

Thomas spent her last summer on the farm when she was 10 years old. The following year, she was enrolled in pre-college and summer engagement programs at her school. Because she had experience with agriculture and mathematics from working on her grandfather’s farm, she naturally gravitated toward the math- and science-based programs.

‘I didn’t know that there was a world out there’

While attending the summer courses, Thomas received continuous support from her family.  

“That’s one of the reasons I was really motivated,” she said. “My grandparents and my mom told me, ‘I want you to be able to use your education. I want you to be able to use knowledge and make strides forward in life to leave some type of legacy or mark.’”

Thomas also received a tremendous amount of support and encouragement from her instructors, but it was the Upward Bound program that opened the doors to new possibilities and gave her a new lease on life.

“Upward Bound was instrumental to me because growing up in Elaine, I didn’t know,” she explained. “I didn’t know that there was a world out there, that you could go to college, and that there were different opportunities out there for you.”

Once Thomas had been exposed to life beyond the farm, she was determined to reach those places in the new world, to experience the parts of life that had long been hidden from her. Thomas knew that she wanted to be an engineer, but she also knew that the only way to make it possible was through education.

The year before she graduated from high school, Thomas had manila folders filled with applications, their statuses, and the scholarship applications she had submitted. Using this filing system, she compared colleges, selected her top choice, and began her journey through higher education.

Life’s a marathon, not a sprint

Thomas was sold on attending Tennessee State University, one of the locations she visited while in Upward Bound. She graduated from the university with both her Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and Master’s of Science in Engineering. Although she’d accomplished a huge feat, Thomas didn’t plan on stopping.

After obtaining her second degree, Thomas packed up her clothes in huge garbage bags and made her way to Virginia.

“I pulled up MapQuest, got in my car, and hoped for the best,” she said.

Thomas was determined to build an inspiring legacy. She knew that she wanted to do research at Virginia Tech, so she created opportunities that led to her to the university and eventually obtained her doctoral degree in civil engineering from there. While completing her degree, she worked as a hydrologist at the U.S. Geological Survey.

After 11 years of higher education, Thomas accepted a position as an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Syracuse University. While there, Thomas was so focused on success and balancing her personal and career life, she neglected her health.

Thomas had reached her largest weight at 385 pounds.

“It was so difficult to move, to walk,” she recounted. “Daily activities, daily tasks that I had to do were very difficult because of the amount of weight I had. I was very unhappy.”

Thomas knew that she was prone to heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes based on her family’s medical history. If she wanted to be an inspiration to others, she would have to start with being an inspiration to herself.

“[Losing weight] is one of those processes where you ask yourself, ‘How do you even get there?’” she said. “Having this internal sense of ‘I can do it, I’m not going to quit,’ I looked at [the challenge] as a marathon instead of a sprint.”

Through exercise and dieting, she lost 20 pounds, then 40, remaining consistent until she eventually lost more than 230 pounds.

On to ‘Mrs. Arkansas America’

This moment in Thomas’ life showed her that she could do anything with the right mindset, and she wanted to share this experience with women and students from all walks of life, informing them of why investing in their education is so important.

“Everything stems from knowledge,” Thomas said. “Knowledge teaches you about health, academics, and even things in your personal life.”

Thomas is the only female program coordinator of an undergraduate environmental engineering program in the state of Arkansas, which is why she is so passionate about encouraging other women to take on roles in STEM.

In preparation for Mrs. Arkansas America, Thomas is visiting schools and universities across the state to speak about her platform, “Empowering through Education-The Power of Knowledge,” share the role education played in determining her future, and voice the importance of family.  

“I’m very humbled and I’m grateful,” Thomas said. “It feels like a dream.”