Rate My Professor Thomas Washington

Thomas Alex Washington is a professor and Bachelor of Arts in Social Work (BASW) Program Director in the School of Social Work at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), College of Health and Human Services. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in 2002, M.S.S.W. from the University of Tennessee-Health Science Center in 1998, and M.A. in Sociology from the University of Memphis in 1995. Washington's career includes prior roles as an associate professor at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Faculty Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Disparities Solutions, and Visiting Professor at the UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, Department of Medicine. He also delivered outpatient treatment group therapy in the Department of Psychiatry at the VA Medical Center in Memphis. Currently, he co-directs the Population Research Institute for Science and Medicine (PRISM), an NIGMS/NIH-funded affiliate of Charles Drew University. He teaches research methods, statistics, and advises theses in the BASW program.

Dr. Washington's research centers on HIV prevention and intervention, with a focus on marginalized populations including young Black and Latinx sexual minority males, transgender health, Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) uptake, inconsistent sexual orientation reporting among men who inject drugs, and HIV testing and sexual risks among substance-using Black and Latinx sexual minority males. He has secured nearly $3 million in external funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIDA/NIGMS/NIH), SAMHSA, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to develop community-based, web-delivered HIV/AIDS interventions promoting testing and linkage to care. Washington has presented refereed papers at national and international conferences in Thailand, Canada, Egypt, Australia, South Africa, Amsterdam, and Peru, published in refereed empirical journals, and co-edited two special issue journal volumes. He serves on community advisory boards. His accolades include the 2025 CSWE CSOGIE Two-Spirit, Queer, and Trans People of Color Award, 2022 Ellen Ward Leadership Icon Award from the LGBTQ Center Long Beach, 2019 CSULB President’s Award for Outstanding Faculty Achievement, 2017 CSULB Distinguished Faculty Scholarly and Creative Achievement Award, CSULB Early Academic Career Excellence Award, and NAESM Gerald A. Ludd Lifetime Achievement Award for HIV leadership in the Black community.