How area woman became a chief of staff
Shashrina WASHINGTON — Thomas was in sixth grade when her mother made a decision: Her daughter would learn about the government, whether she liked it or not.
It turns out, she liked it very much.
Today Thomas, a Dayton-area native who graduated from Jefferson Twp. High School, is a veteran Capitol Hill staffer who just completed a stint as chief of staff to Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala. Her career has included work for lawmakers including Rep. Lou Stokes and Stephanie Tubbs Jones, both of Cleveland.
Hers is very much a story of a village — albeit one led by a very strong mother — raising a child.
Her mother was a senior at Wilberforce University when she became pregnant with Shashrina. Her parents, who lived in Cleveland, Miss., urged her to come home to raise her baby. Shirley Thomas refused; she wanted to finish her education. Instead, her pastor, Nathaniel Winston and his wife, took her in. They became de facto grandparents for young Shashrina, and her church community became her extended family.
In sixth grade, Shashrina’s mother, who had been a Freedom Rider in Mississippi, pulled her aside. “You’re going to learn about the government,” she told the little girl.
“I was like, ‘but I want to be a cheerleader!’” Thomas said.
But Shirley Thomas persisted, ultimately signing her daughter up to spend four hours one day a week working for then state Rep. Rhine McLin and another two days working in Dayton Congressman Tony Hall’s district office.
The experience became something of a boot camp for the teen. Shashrina learned about the local elected officials, who were the community leaders, who were the industry leaders.
“I was like, ‘why do I need to know this stuff,’” she said. Her mother told her, “You just need to know. You need to know the leaders in your neighborhood and your community and how the government operates.”
Bear Monita, who was Hall’s district director, remembered Shashrina as being raw and unpolished at the time. She hadn’t had experience working in an office or providing customer service, sometimes to callers who were frustrated or angry. “It was all new to her,” he said.
But Monita said he had people invest in him when he was young. So he stuck with her. They’re still in touch today. “It’s gratifying and rewarding to think I played some small part in laying the foundation for this success story,” he said.
Later, her mother prodded her to work for a bank, then, later, to travel abroad, so she became a student ambassador to Russia and Japan. McLin, Hall and Monita wrote letters in support of her. Her church — Mount Calvary Baptist Church — held bake sales to pay her way.
“The community became my family,” she said. “There was no getting in trouble at school,” she said. “There was no failing.” Everyone, from her mother to her pastor to the district director for her congressman — “they all needed to know how I was doing,” she said.
When she went off to Wright State University, her community expanded further. She began working with the school’s first African-American president, Harley Flack, and Flack introduced her to Cleveland Congressman Louis Stokes. Stokes tapped her for an internship — again, with some prodding from her mother.
If her mother gave her the real-life equivalent of a bachelor’s degree, Stokes gave her the doctorate. The young college student was told always to be professional, to treat each day as if you were in an interview.
Stokes, the first African-American to serve on the House Appropriations Committee, grilled her on appropriations, making her memorize 10 accounts in the budget. He talked to her at length about the disparity in health care for women and minorities, why it was important for her to understand health care policy.
He was quite a mentor: The first African-American member in the history of Ohio’s congressional delegation, he was also the first African-American chair of the House Intelligence Committee.
Other interns worked normal hours. Thomas would be there until late at night. She was exhausted and wanted to return to Dayton, but her mother refused. Stokes’ chief of staff pulled Thomas aside one day. “This will pay off one day,” she told the Wright State student.
And it did. The day before Thomas graduated, she got a call: Stokes wanted to give her a job. She moved back to Washington — this time for good.
“It all started with Congressman Stokes,” she said. “And it’s still going today.”
That began a long career in public service. She met President Bill Clinton through her work on the Hill. She went on to work for Rep. Carrie Meeks, D-Fla., and then for the D.C. office of Missouri’s governor.
Then, she began getting calls from Stokes and from Rep. David Hobson, R-Springfield. Cleveland Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones needed a staffer. They thought she should apply.
Thomas met with Tubbs Jones. Tubbs Jones’ assessment was quick.
“Well, hell, Lou Stokes and Dave Hobson say I should hire you,” Thomas remembers the congresswoman asking. “Do I have a choice?”
Hobson describes Thomas as a “very personable person” who “works very hard.”
“I think the best thing you can say is that she could talk to anybody,” he said. “And she always had a good relationship with both sides of the aisle.”
She worked for Tubbs Jones, then for Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, gradually rising through the ranks. Then, one day, she got another call.
It was from Rep. Terri Sewell, an Alabama Democrat whose chief of staff had just gotten another job. Sewell wanted Thomas to take the position. Thomas had never served as a chief of staff.
“She said, ‘I’m growing, you’re growing. Let’s grow together,’” Thomas recalled.
But Sewell needed help. She was brand new to the House Intelligence Committee. Thomas gave Stokes a call. Stokes patiently walked her through the things he’d learned when he served as the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. He told Thomas what Sewell might want to work on, who she needed to know. He died a week later. “I had no idea he had cancer,” she said. But, she said, “he still took my calls.”
“It was the village that invested into me,” she said. “And they still invest into me.”