October 28, 2025 | Erin Bluvas, bluvase@sc.edu

Delores Marie (“Marie”) Thomas only had four years at USC, first as part of the College of Pharmacy’s COVID-19 testing group and then as a member of Melissa Nolan’s infectious disease laboratory, yet her impact touched every one of the faculty, staff, students and community members she interacted with. And now, with the naming of the Nolan lab in her honor, thanks to a gift from her family, her impact will last indefinitely.

Thomas moved to Columbia in 2020, when her husband, Larry Thomas, was recruited to serve as USC’s Vice President for Communications due to his decades of experience with the U.S. Navy as well as the oil and gas company, BP. His wife joined him for the cross-country move – jumping right into the pandemic response by managing the COVID-19 testing center and serving as the HIPPA compliance officer for the university.

“As soon as I met her, I knew we needed her on our team,” Nolan says. “I begged her to joins us, and she became our program manager in 2021 once the testing efforts started winding down a bit.”

Thomas had already had her own successful corporate career in Houston, TX, and she was excited to apply her knowledge and skills to a new setting. She continued her professional development by leveraging the many courses and certifications offered by the university.

“Ms. Marie’s career path from corporate program management to academic research was a true testament to her growth and continuous learning,” says Kia Zellars, who joined the team around the same time as Thomas as the lab manager. “That transition was a form of scientific discovery itself, and it is fitting that the laboratory, which now bears her name, reflects that legacy. As a first-time lab manager, I felt her wisdom, warm support, and steady structure in ways that shaped both our lab and my own leadership. She always had my back, and that made all the difference.”

Thomas passed all of her gifts forward through the many lives she touched via her mentorship and guidance. From undergraduates to postdoctoral students, early career faculty, and the lab director herself, Thomas impacted everyone in some special way.

“Marie was the heart and soul of the lab,” Nolan says. “She was the neck that would turn my head to make sure I knew what I needed to look at, what needed to be done next.”

Thomas once told Nolan that she kept a journal on her bedside table to make notes of her work and her interactions with lab members. She was passionate about what they were doing – monitoring and addressing known and less known threats to public health and preparing the next generation to carry the work forward.

“Ms. Marie was like a mother to me,” says Titilayomi (“Titi”) Abiodun, a master’s student at Emory University who spent more than two years in the lab as an undergraduate research assistant while studying public health at the Arnold School. “She was a strong, confident woman whose warmth showed in how much she cared for the lab, the people in it, and the research we did. She looked out for me in so many ways and welcomed me into the lab and her family.”

When Thomas was diagnosed with cancer, the entire lab was devastated. Despite the aggressive battle she was waging, she managed to come into the office for a special event where the lab hosted the Board of Trustees and congressional staff. Around this time, the lab members wrote her dozens of letters of encouragement and gratitude for her impact and support.

Numerous family members, colleagues and friends attended Thomas’s memorial service in Greenville in June, where they honored her life and supported those she left behind: Larry, their three adult children, two elementary school-aged twins, and many others. On October 31, her family participated in a ceremony to make a gift that would support future lab trainees and continue her legacy through the naming of the lab.

“I feel so blessed to have known such a loving, hardworking, and caring woman,” Abiodun says. “Ms. Marie made the lab feel like family in every sense. She will forever remain in my heart, and I will carry the lessons and love from her and for her forever in my heart.”